The purpose of dairy farming is the same as all other animal husbandry branches, profit. Milk is the most important product of dairy farming. Amount of profit made from this depends on efficient production and quality of the milk produced. For this reason; raising and care of cattle and proper barn conditions play a big role.To reach the desired levels of production, some guidelines on milking must be followed.
What is Milking ?
Milking is the act of removing milk from udders. Simply put, it’s the harvest of milk.
Importance of Milking
In dairy farming, milking should be done with extereme care, as mistakes cause drops in production and low quality milk. In longer time periods, it might even harm the udder and the cattle. It shouldn’t be forgotten that a teat is a quarter cow and a cow is an udder.
Types of Milking : Milking can be done in two ways, by or by machine.
Hand Milking :
Hand Milking is very common in Turkey, but the reason for this isn’t the superiority of the technique. Most dairy farms in our country isn’t big enough, or financially strong enough to use advanced equipment. Hand milking can be done in three ways.
- Milking with two fingers
- Milking with Thumb
- Milking with Palm
Machine Milking:
The milk is removed from the teats by use of vacuum.
1- Things to do before milking:
- Machine is started to see if there’re any leaks, and if the vacuum is enough. It is cleaned by having some cold water go through.
- The part of the barn where milking is done should be cleaned at least 30 minutes before milking in order to keep dust away.
- Equipment to be used with milking should be prepared.
2- Milking
- If the cattle are to be fed while being milked, fodder is given. The udders are washed and dried.
- A few drops are milked from each teat to check for Mastitis and dirty milk on the tips of teats is disposed of while doing this.
- The teats deemed healthy can be milked.
- The milk flow is slow at the start, it will get faster in a while but it will start slowing down again. When this happens, massaging the udder will increase the flow. When it slows down again, the claw is softly pushed down to extract some more milk. After this, the vacuum is turned off and machine is detached from the udder.
- After milking, teatcups should be put into a disinfectant solution.
3- Things to pay attention to while milking
- Washing and cleaning the udder is an action that causes udder to release milk. For this reason, it should be done quickly and milking should begin immediately after.
- Milking is best completed in 5 to 7 minutes.
- The teatcups should be detached as soon as the milk flow stops as the vacuum might harm the udder
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