The effect of manual and mechanical stimulation on oxytocin release and milking characteristics in Holstein cows milked 3 times daily

Abstract

Prestimulation administered to a cow before attachment of the milking unit has historically been performed manually. Development of innovative milking technology has allowed manual stimulation to be replaced by mechanical forms of stimulation. Holstein cows (n=30) were enrolled in a crossover design to determine the effect of manual stimulation (forestripping and drying) and high-vibration pulsation on oxytocin profiles, milk yield, milk flow rates, incidence of delayed milk ejection causing bimodal milk flow curves, and residual milk in Holstein cows milked 3 times daily (3×). All cows were subjected to all treatments. Cows received manual (forestripping and drying) or mechanical (high-vibration pulsation) stimulation along with lag times of 0, 30, or 90 s for 21 consecutive milkings. Forestripping involved the manual removal of 2 streams of milk from each teat and drying of the teats. High-vibration pulsation involved increasing the pulsation cycles from 60 to 300 pulses/min and reducing the vacuum in the pulsation chamber to 20 kPa. The 5 treatments were (1) immediate attachment of the milking machine under normal pulsation (T0); (2) dip plus forestrip and drying with 30-s lag time (FD30); (3) dip plus forestrip and drying with 90-s lag time (FD90); (4) high-vibration pulsation for 30 s (HV30); and (5) high-vibration pulsation for 90 s (HV90). Milk yield per milking averaged 14.0 kg and was significantly different among treatments; however, the maximum difference detected among treatments was 0.8 kg/milking. Milking unit on-time, which represents the time when the milking unit is under normal pulsation and harvesting milk (excluding the high-vibration pulsation time of 30 or 90 s), was shortest (245 s) for cows subjected to 90 s of high-vibration pulsation (HV90) and ranged from 256 to 261 s for all other treatments. Milk harvest may have begun during high-vibration pulsation; however, only 0.13 and 0.32 kg of milk was harvested during high-vibration pulsation for HV30 and HV90, respectively. The incidence of bimodal milk curves was lowest for FD90 (7%) and highest for T0 (21%). The somatic cell count was <72×10(3) cells/mL for all treatments. Residual milk obtained by giving 10 IU of oxytocin in the jugular vein followed by 2 min of milking unit attachment represented 12 to 14% of the total milk and did not differ among treatments. Endogenous oxytocin profiles peaked between 12.4 and 18.3 pg/mL for all treatments, and the peak occurred sooner in manually stimulated cows; however, we detected no difference in oxytocin concentration beyond 2 min after milking unit attachment. High-vibration pulsation elicited a similar oxytocin release when taking the start time of stimulation from manual stimulation or high vibration into consideration. Forestripping for visual observation of milk combined with the use of high-vibration stimulation may reduce variation in the milking routine. A predetermined lag time with minimal variation may be achieved via the time spent in high-vibration stimulation instead of a lag period...

Short communication: Teat-end shape and udder-level milking characteristics and their associations with machine milking-induced changes in teat tissue condition

“…Data from electronic on-farm milk meters that routinely measure milking characteristics have been established as measures of parlor performance (Reid and Stewart, 2007;Treichler and Reid, 2013), premilking udder preparation (Watters et al, 2012(Watters et al, , 2015, and assessment of liner performance . In addition, recent case-control studies have investigated the association of milking characteristics with the risk of clinical mastitis (Guarín and Ruegg, 2016;Penry et al, 2017a).…”

Genome-wide association study for milking speed in French Holstein cows

“…The p53 is a stress-induced transcription factor that controls various cellular response mechanisms including cell cycle arrest and apoptosis (Li and Jogl, 2009). Its expression can influence the release of oxytocin response during pregnancy and lactation in model organisms (Soloff and Wieder, 1983) and oxytocin is released in cows for the letdown of milk (Watters et al, 2015). The timing of oxytocin release relative to milk removal is an important factor affecting milk ejection and persistency during lactation (Nostrand et al, 1991).…”

Microchip capillary electrophoresis dairy device using fluorescence spectroscopy for detection of ciprofloxacin in milk samples

“…3a with injection starting at 30 s and electrophoresis starting at two minutes and 30 s. It should be observed that as the sample approaches the UV LED for measurement at approximately 18 min, there is no discernable response, indicating the ciprofloxacin is not present. It should be noted that through careful selection of voltages and channel lengths www.nature.com/scientificreports/ (with the electric field being approximately equal to the ratio between these values), it is envisioned that the analysis time can be greatly reduced, in accordance with dairy requirements for analysis time 37 . The microchip capillary electrophoresis dairy device is then operated with a milk sample containing 0.25 mM ciprofloxacin to establish an antibiotic-present response (being the change of the output voltage at the temporal region of interest).…”