Effects of quarter individual and conventional milking systems on teat condition

Abstract. An on-farm experiment was performed to investigate the effects of two milking systems on bovine teat condition over a period of seven months. An auto-tandem milking parlor made by GEA® with a conventional milking cluster (CON) and a single tube milking system called MultiLactor® (MULTI) from Siliconform GmbH were tested. For both milking systems, from a total of about 600 milking Holstein cows on farm 73 cows that were around the 100th day-in-milk and had healthy udders were selected and divided into two groups randomly. To assess the effect of milking on teat condition, each teat was scored according to teat-condition evaluation systems. To evaluate teat condition, the teat color, ring formation at the teat base and formation of teat hyperkeratosis were assessed. The evaluation was conducted once a month after milking. The collected data were then statistically analyzed with generalized mixed models. The only differences found between the two milking systems occurred with respect to their effect on teat color. MULTI showed significantly better scores compared to CON. There were no significant differences between the milking systems with regard to teat-end hyperkeratosis and ring formation at the teat base.