Dale Mahalko
01-16-2012, 03:31 PM
(Just some background info on why all the old dairy equipment, that people are recycling for maple systems, normally runs at 15 inches of vacuum.)
Trees can handle much higher apparently..
http://www.farmers.coop/fileadmin/farmers/ask-the-experts/ProperMilkingSystemsOperations-Notes.doc
ORGANIC VALLEY / CROPP COOPERATIVE
“Ask the Experts” Proper Milking Systems Operations Conference Call with CROPP’s Quality Department: Steve Kretchmer, James Miller, Kevin Jahnke and CROPP Producer Clair Shirk
Dec. 1, 2011
3) Steve: Maybe you'd comment a little bit on the impact the vacuum has on mastitis and injury to the udder and how important that is.
Kevin: The vacuum is really important to the efficiency of the milker unit. Now on all the milker claws they have what's called a bleed hole and that's going to be a little pin hole in the claw to admit air to help push the milk away.
So if your vacuum is too high or too low, you're going to see uneven vacuum levels in that claw and when you get uneven vacuum levels it's called 'reverse jetting' where it shoots milk back up into the teat. So if you've got a cow with one quarter that has contagious mastitis in it and you're milking her with some faulty milking equipment you know there's a high probability that milk is going to get jetted up into other quarters and spread mastitis through her whole udder.
So the vacuum is critical to that. It's important that the pulsation is working right because that can contribute to that. If the vacuum is too high and/or the milker's left on the cow too long, it's what they refer to as overmilking, which basically means that instead of exposing that teat end to 11.5 to 12 inches of vacuum, which is ideal, the longer the milking unit hangs on the cow with no milk flowing out of it, the higher that vacuum gets until the claw vacuum matches the system vacuum which in most highline barns is 15.
When a cow's teat end is exposed to 15 inches of vacuum what it does is basically start to pull that teat inside out. Right on the very end of the teat, on the inner canal there's some tissue called keratin and that's protection against outside environmental conditions, protecting from things getting inside the teat and you'll start to pull that outside and when you look at the teat ends they'll have little rings around them or they'll actually look like a little funnel where they're starting to suck the teat end out.
That's not good for a lot of reasons but the biggest reason is that inhibits the cow's own natural defenses against bacteria when she's out and about, outside in the pastures or in the barnyard or whatever. So the vacuum and the maintenance of the system are really important to teat end health.
Trees can handle much higher apparently..
http://www.farmers.coop/fileadmin/farmers/ask-the-experts/ProperMilkingSystemsOperations-Notes.doc
ORGANIC VALLEY / CROPP COOPERATIVE
“Ask the Experts” Proper Milking Systems Operations Conference Call with CROPP’s Quality Department: Steve Kretchmer, James Miller, Kevin Jahnke and CROPP Producer Clair Shirk
Dec. 1, 2011
3) Steve: Maybe you'd comment a little bit on the impact the vacuum has on mastitis and injury to the udder and how important that is.
Kevin: The vacuum is really important to the efficiency of the milker unit. Now on all the milker claws they have what's called a bleed hole and that's going to be a little pin hole in the claw to admit air to help push the milk away.
So if your vacuum is too high or too low, you're going to see uneven vacuum levels in that claw and when you get uneven vacuum levels it's called 'reverse jetting' where it shoots milk back up into the teat. So if you've got a cow with one quarter that has contagious mastitis in it and you're milking her with some faulty milking equipment you know there's a high probability that milk is going to get jetted up into other quarters and spread mastitis through her whole udder.
So the vacuum is critical to that. It's important that the pulsation is working right because that can contribute to that. If the vacuum is too high and/or the milker's left on the cow too long, it's what they refer to as overmilking, which basically means that instead of exposing that teat end to 11.5 to 12 inches of vacuum, which is ideal, the longer the milking unit hangs on the cow with no milk flowing out of it, the higher that vacuum gets until the claw vacuum matches the system vacuum which in most highline barns is 15.
When a cow's teat end is exposed to 15 inches of vacuum what it does is basically start to pull that teat inside out. Right on the very end of the teat, on the inner canal there's some tissue called keratin and that's protection against outside environmental conditions, protecting from things getting inside the teat and you'll start to pull that outside and when you look at the teat ends they'll have little rings around them or they'll actually look like a little funnel where they're starting to suck the teat end out.
That's not good for a lot of reasons but the biggest reason is that inhibits the cow's own natural defenses against bacteria when she's out and about, outside in the pastures or in the barnyard or whatever. So the vacuum and the maintenance of the system are really important to teat end health.