Pre-milking mechanical teat stimulation and milking performance of dairy buffaloes in early lactation

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of pre-milking mechanical teat stimulation on milk yield and milking performance of dairy buffaloes in early lactation. For this purpose, twenty-two healthy Italian Mediterranean buffaloes in their first to third lactation and in early lactation (<120 days in milk) were subjected to two treatments of teat stimulation: i) washing of the teats with water for about 5 s and attaching of the milking unit within 60 s, without any pre-milking massage (farm milking routine); ii) fast pulsation (FP), achieved by increasing pulsation rate to 120 pulsations per min during the first 60 s after application of teat cups. Each treatment lasted for 10 days and the following parameters were measured: milk yield (kg/milking), milk yield at 2 min after unit attachment (kg), time between milking unit attachment and its automatic removal (min), peak milk flow rate (kg/min), and milking time to reach peak flow rate (min). The average milk flow rate (kg/min) was calculated by dividing milk yield by the actual milking time. Milk yield was not affected by mechanical pre-stimulation and during the first 2 min of milking 20.2% and 19.6% of total milk yield were milked respectively when treatments 1 and 2 were applied. The time elapsed from attachment of the milking cluster until its automatic removal was less than 8 min both for buffaloes subjected to FP, and for buffaloes subjected just to washing of the teats before attaching the milking unit. FP stimulation did not show an enhancing effect on peak and average milk flow rates and on milking time to reach peak flow rate.

Effects of an automatic milking system on milk yield and quality of Mediterranean buffaloes

“…Indeed, compared with dairy cows, buffaloes present delayed milk ejection due to a different mechanisms of milk ejection, mammary anatomy, and the internal arrangement of mammary tissue, as well as longer and thicker teats (Thomas et al, 2004;Borghese et al, 2007;Ambord et al, 2010). Whereas the use of AMS has been studied deeply in dairy cows (Jacobs and Siegford, 2012), to date, scientific research on Mediterranean buffaloes is still limited (Caria et al, 2014;Faugno et al, 2015;Tangorra et al, 2017). The most attractive aspect of an automatic system for a farmer may be relief from the milking routine (Jensen, 2004).…”

Anatomy and Physiology of Water Buffalo Mammary Glands: An Anatomofunctional Comparison with Dairy Cattle

“…Therefore, the milking units (cups or teat cups) must be placed after the start of the milk ejection response [50]. Some authors mention that a prestimulation of 60 s improves milking in Italian Mediterranean buffalo [88], while other studies indicate that the optimal duration of prestimulation is 1-2 min [47]. However, the latency and time for prestimulation depend on the filling of the udder [89].…”

Neurophysiology of Milk Ejection and Prestimulation in Dairy Buffaloes

“…However, the considerable amount of time that manual pre-stimulation requires has consequences for the yields achieved in the milking room because it lowers the number of dams that can be milked per hour. One option to counteract this could be pre-stimulation by means of the pulsations of the milking machine itself [ 91 ].…”

“…Today, mechanized milking is a leading option to increase productivity, hygiene, milk quality, and income. This method is also important because it reduces the labor costs and improves herd management [ 91 ]. These advantages have led producers to use the same technology for both dairy cattle and dairy buffalo, without necessarily taking into account the anatomical-physiological characteristics of the udders of the two species, which, as we have seen, differ significantly.…”