Stewart S, Godden S, Rapnicki P, Reid D, Johnson A, Eicker S
Department of Clinical and Population Sciences, University of Minnesota, St. Paul 55108, USA.
J Dairy Sci. 2002 Apr;85(4):818-23. doi: 10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(02)74141-6.
A crossover study design was used in five commercial dairy herds to study the effect of altering the switch point settings for automatic cluster remover units on the average duration of unit attachment, milk flow, and milk yield. Automatic cluster remover switch point settings were alternated, for 1-wk periods, between 0.50 and 0.64 kg/min (1.1 and 1.4 lb/min) in one herd and between 0.73 and 0.82 kg/min (1.6 and 1.8 lb/min) in the four remaining herds. Parlor data were captured at 329 separate milking sessions (range 39 to 92 per herd), representing 239,393 individual cow milkings. While increasing the automatic cluster remover switch point setting was not associated with a change in average milking duration in one herd, it had the effect of significantly reducing the average milking duration by between 10.2 and 15.6 s per cow in the remaining four herds. Milk flow was significantly increased at higher switch point settings for all five herds. Higher automatic cluster remover switch point settings did not have a negative effect on milk yield in any of the herds studied and, in fact, were associated with increased milk yield in two of the five herds. Decreasing milking duration while either maintaining or increasing the volume of milk harvested should ultimately lead to improved milking efficiency and parlor performance. Modifying systems to increase automatic cluster remover switch point settings offers an important potential opportunity to increase parlor efficiency in commercial dairy herds.
在五个商业化奶牛场中采用交叉研究设计，以研究改变自动脱杯装置的切换点设置对脱杯平均持续时间、牛奶流速和产奶量的影响。在一个奶牛场中，自动脱杯切换点设置在0.50至0.64千克/分钟（1.1至1.4磅/分钟）之间每周交替一次，在其余四个奶牛场中，切换点设置在0.73至0.82千克/分钟（1.6至1.8磅/分钟）之间每周交替一次。在329次单独的挤奶过程中采集了挤奶厅数据（每个奶牛场范围为39至92次），代表239,393次个体奶牛挤奶。虽然提高自动脱杯切换点设置在一个奶牛场中与平均挤奶持续时间的变化无关，但在其余四个奶牛场中，它使每头奶牛的平均挤奶持续时间显著减少了10.2至15.6秒。对于所有五个奶牛场，较高的切换点设置下牛奶流速显著增加。较高的自动脱杯切换点设置在任何一个研究的奶牛场中对产奶量都没有负面影响，事实上，在五个奶牛场中的两个中，它与产奶量增加有关。在保持或增加采奶量的同时减少挤奶持续时间最终应能提高挤奶效率和挤奶厅性能。修改系统以提高自动脱杯切换点设置为提高商业化奶牛场的挤奶厅效率提供了一个重要的潜在机会。
