Summary — Sixty-five Manchega ewes were milked with three different commercial clusters with different teatcup and claw characteristics. Clusters with a lip mouthpiece deflection close to 20 mm/kg (vs 8 mm/kg) increased the amount of machine milk (7.6-11.5%) and reduced the hand stripped milk (22.7!t0.5%) and residual milk volumes (9.7-14.9%). They also improved the milk fat (2.3-2.5%), lactose (1.0-1.4%) and dry matter (1.8%) composition, thereby potentially simplifying the machine milking routine. Milk flow was improved by large claws