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Survey of Milking Facilities, Management, and Performance on Wisconsin and Italian Dairy Farms

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  Sixth International Dairy Housing Conference Proceeding, 16-18 June 2007, (Minneapolis, Minnesota) (Electronic Only)  701P0507e.(doi:10.13031/2013.22806)
Authors:   Robert D Bade, Kathryn J Hohmann, Jose Pantoja, Maddalena Zucali, Pamela Ruegg, Douglas J Reinemann
Keywords:   claw vacuum, milk flow rate, milking parlor, milk quality, parlor efficiency, parlor performance, teat condition

Dairy facilities designers and dairy managers require feedback from operating facilities in order to improve the facility design and management process. The objective of these studies is to provide such feedback by documenting the relationship between dairy facilities and management practices on milking parlor efficiency, milk quality, teat condition, and udder hygiene. The data presented here was collected on over 80 farms that took part in three different field studies in Wisconsin in 2006, in addition to data from 135 farms in Northern Italy. Data was collected by on-farm visits of researchers, mail-in surveys, or by conversation with dairy managers. Descriptive statistics of milking machine performance have been presented earlier. This paper presents additional data regarding dairy facilities and milking parlor labor efficiency including: milking parlor type and size, number of operators, milking routines, cows/hour milked, annualized cost estimates of milking center and labor, milk quality measures, udder hygiene, bedding material, teat condition, milk flow rates, and milking vacuum levels.

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