Northumbrian milking machine tales: Old Alf’s contraption

Byres, hemmels, shippons and mistles - milking machine tales

By Jack Dent (2005)

I knew an old engineer in Leyburn when I was an apprentice during the war, and used to go into his workshop to get bits and pieces made, as parts were very scarce in those dark days. Old Alf could just about make anything – he had to.

One day he was fettling something and as I was waiting for it (as lads do), I was nosing about in his back shop and I found a two cylinder Jowett 8hp car which had been butchered and reformed as a mowing machine. It had a car front end and a pair of cast mower wheels and a cutter bar at the back. Alf told me he had made eight of these machines from scrap cars.

He had made them to order for local farmers between the horse and tractor age. But Alf was getting older and tractors were coming in so the secret of his “motor mower contraption” was lost.

After the war there appeared on the market another wonderful contraption called the “Motorcart”. This had a flat cart body with two rear wheels and at the front it had one huge tractor wheel. The chassis came up in a fork to a pivot on top of this wheel, and a 5 hp Petter engine was mounted on the side. It only had one forward gear and a reverse, and was steered by a tiller bar by the driver who stood on a platform in front of the cart body. The luxury of the seat was not part of the package.

Norman Harrison had one, and every morning he drove about a mile from Harmby to Leyburn to bring his milk cans to the Express Dairy. The top speed was something less than walking speed and I can vouch for this, for at the time I was an apprentice at the L.N.E.R. workshops next door to the Express Dairy. Norman had the machine for about 15 years and used it every day. He said the body fell to bits before the engine gave out – that’s the machine’s body and not Norman’s!

Northumbrian milking machine tales: Aye man, it's gannin' all the way to fifteen!

Byres, hemmels, shippons and mistles - milking machine tales
by Jack Dent (2005)

I installed a milking machine near my home for a very nice old chap and he was pleased at first, but then complained that it didn’t milk as well as his neighbour’s new machine. The neighbour’s was an Alfa-Laval and I found out that this neighbour was telling him that his machine worked better because his clock read 15, and the Simplex only 13.

The fact was that the different vacuum readings were due to the different pulsator requirements, but I thought I wouldn’t get very far trying to explain this to the old man. So I took a screwdriver to the back of the clock when the old lad wasn’t around and made it read two inches of mercury higher.
Photo: advertisement from the late 1930s for Alfa Laval equipment.

He was delighted and I was especially pleased when his neighbour told him that he thought the Simplex was a bit better milking machine.

One day I was fitting a small machine in a Dales byre and while fitting the vacuum line overhead, the farmer’s son came in and asked me if there would be any vibration in the pipe.

Picture: Widely used bucket type of milking plant, operating from a fixed overhead vacuum line. From Kenneth Russell (1969) The Principles of Dairy Farming.

His father was with him and then later on that afternoon, the old man came back into the byre. I was standing on the milking cracket fixing a tap and the old man walloped me across the backside and said “Thooed better leave a hole in yan end”. I asked him what for, and his reply was “te let viberashum oot”.

Northumbrian milking machine tales: Modern Contraptions and Young Upstarts

Byres, hemmels, shippons and mistles - milking machine tales
by Jack Dent (2005)

When I was fitting, I installed a weird contraption on a farm just outside Hexham; it was called a Runway Parlour and was very successful. First I suspended a runway track around the cowshed, and from it I suspended a cradle which supported a standard 10-gallon milk churn. The churn had a flat lid with a pulsator and inlet spigots. The vacuum pipe was also mounted on the runway and the cows were milked through the back legs.

Nothing new in that you may say, but remember this was 1953 and the milk was taken in a metal churn to the dairy and cooled with rotary turbo coolers which was a very efficient system.

I worked on a farm in the East Riding of Yorkshire and it was not a happy place as there was continual conflict between the farmer and his three sons. The lads had threatened to go on strike if he didn’t get a milking machine, and he was much against such newfangled things as he couldn’t see how they could be as clean as hand milking. All the time I was working there he kept coming into the cowshed and telling me that if it didn’t work right, I could take the damned thing away as it was going to be most uncomfortable for the cows.

However, I completed the installation, which was quite a big one for 40 cows. We milked for the first time on a Wednesday night and everything went off smoothly. I think that the cows were pleased that the old man was not there creating the bad atmosphere that constantly accompanied him.

Next morning we milked again and that was the end of my tutelage. I was gathering up my tools ready to depart when he stormed into the cowshed waving a letter. He was waving his stick at me too and I thought I was about to be attacked. He shouted – “I bloody told you, so take the bugger out of here, and give me my money back”.

I finally got him to tell me what the problem was and he said – “Look at this letter from the dairy. My milk has failed the test, and in over 40 years I have never had any milk sent back. It’s a damned disgrace. I knew it would happen, but I let them bloody lads take me into it, and now look what’s happened!”

But my reaction was one of great relief and I’m afraid, and I didn’t endear myself to the old boy as I burst out laughing – the result I’m sure of the relief! I had great pleasure in pointing out to the old chap that the milk, which had been extracted by machine, was still on the milk stand waiting for the lorry to pick it up!

I thought the old bloke was going to have a fit. He was absolutely stunned and turned around and went across the yard muttering about modern contraptions and young upstarts.

Northumbrian milking machine tales: The revolution from hand milking to machines

Byres, hemmels, shippons and mistles - milking machine tales

by Jack Dent (2005)

Forty-five years doesn’t seem long as you live it, but nowadays I get some queer looks from young ones when I mention what went on in the past. This was brought home to me during my last few months working for Simplex. I was moving on after twenty odd years as I had reached the dizzy heights of “Northern Sales Manager”.

Image: an advert for Simplex milking equipment from Farm Mechanisation magazine, August 1966 kindly supplied by Tom Clancy, retired milking machine installer, Hamilton NZ.

 

The Simplex bucket unit used on North Tyne farms

I had to fill in for one of my reps and went up into the Whitby Dales to follow up an enquiry. The farmer was a nice young fellow and I sold him a small milking machine. As I was leaving he said –‘Oh do you have a son working for Simplex”? I said that I didn’t and asked why he wanted to know.

He replied – “When I was a little lad at home a man called Jack Dent put our milking machine in, and he stayed with us and he used to play football with us, eeh we had a grand time”. I looked closer at him and asked if he had lived at Waupley New Inn farm, and he said “Yes I did’! He couldn’t believe it when I told him that I was the same Jack Dent he’d known as a boy. In his mind he imagined that I had stayed the same age even though he had grown into a man.

I don’t think I put in the first milking parlour in the North of England, although I might well have been among the first. But I quite definitely sold the first New Zealand style “herringbone” type parlour in the North. This was to a man at Low Mowthorpe near Malton, and was on the next farm to MAF Experimental Husbandry Farm; it caused a great stir in the district.

Modern New Zealand herringbone

I sold a good many from that one, and I subsequently found that my competitors were taking their prospects to see it, and telling them that their’s was more advanced than ours. I suppose this was fair game as I had taken John Rowbottom down to the Farmer’s Weekly farm at Tring in Hertfordshire to see a Gascoigne herringbone. That was the only herringbone in the country at the time and mine was next.

I shudder to tell you the teething troubles we had with that machine and I just about lived on that farm for weeks. One night I was there and my fitter (Derek) was sorting things out. We couldn’t get something to work right and we decided he would stay the night to keep the thing going.

By this time, Derek was very popular as he was a brilliant piano player after the style of Russ Conway and the Rowbottom girls were all in love with him. They were delighted he was going to stay the night. It was 60 miles from his home and he said to one of these young ladies who was looking forward to hearing him play, “I’ll just nip home for my pyjamas.” “Oh please don’t be long” she said, “I have to go to bed soon.”

The well-cared-for old byre at Greenhaugh on the end of the house

Northumbrian milking machine tales: Getting the cuws used to being machine milked.

Byres, hemmels, shippons and mistles - milking machine tales
by Jack Dent (2005)

After a milking machine was installed, I had to spend sometime showing the farmers how to use and clean it. On one farm I was doing an installation for one of the nicest farmers I have ever worked for. His greatest pleasure was to go to Leyburn market every Friday to meet his friends and discuss the state of the stock trade, and he always wore a smart blue suit and a pristine white shirt.

The night we were to use the machine for the first time, it happened to be a Friday night, so Charlie duly arrived back from Leyburn and looked into the byre to see how I was getting on. I told him I was ready to demonstrate the machine working, and if he could get changed, I would instruct him in its use.

He said he would appreciate if I did the milking that night and he would just watch. He added that he hadn’t missed a milking for over 40 years, and was looking forward to watching someone else milk his cows.

“Fair enough” I said and proceeded to start milking. Charlie stood at the back of the byre which is not very wide in small Dales byres. There was the “standing” where the cow stood which was as long as the cow, then the two-foot wide muck “grip” behind the cow, then if you were lucky, there was about three feet of “back walk” before the wall. Charlie stood there revelling in the fact that he wasn’t having to milk for the first time and he had divested himself of his jacket and tie and just stood there, the epitome of contentment.

Photo: Cowshed with milk pipeline direct to the dairy. Source: Kenneth Russell (1969) The Principles of Dairy Farming.

Now milking for the first time was never the easiest of tasks. I was strange to the cows, and the machine was a new experience to them. In those early days a cow would fetch a lot more money if an auctioneer could declare that “she was used to being machine milked”.

Well of course the inevitable happened. As I was putting the unit on the heifer, she coughed and poor old Charlie was directly in the line of fire. It was a bullseye, right dead centre on Charlie’s pristine best white shirt. I waited for the explosion but he looked at the mess and casually remarked – “I don’t suppose that would have happened if I’d been milking”.

He then departed leaving me to finish the job.

Northumbrian milking machine tales: Traps for young players

Byres, hemmels, shippons and mistles - milking machine tales
by Jack Dent (2005)


I started for the Simplex Milking Machine Company in February 1952 and was designated a “Service Inspector” which meant visiting farms over a wide area fitting new milking machines. At that time most of the herds were between 10 and 20 cows and farmers were making a decent living from those numbers.

I stayed on the farm for about three days while installing the machines; some were good and some I couldn’t get away from fast enough. Some are still friends with half a century on. I also met some “canny lasses”!

As to the buildings themselves, they varied quite a lot from Northumberland byres, Yorkshire Dales “hemmels”, West Yorkshire “shippons” and East Yorkshire “mistles” while up in the hills they were usually called “cow’ouses”!

On the low better land, buildings were nearly always brick and were easy to knock holes though their walls, except if they were on big estates when they were built with “engineering bricks” and were a day’s work getting a two-inch hole through for the vacuum pipe. These bricks were of Victorian origin and through some process in their firing ended up being extremely hard.

The stone walls in buildings up the Dales were a very different matter. It wasn’t simply a case of taking stones out to make the hole for the pipe. Oh no, after a few near disasters I learned to weigh up the enemy, i.e. the wall, and it’s structure built by cunning old masons centuries before. Each stone carried the weight of its neighbours and if I pulled one out, there was likely to be a rumble and I’d end up in a lot of dust (from the lime plaster before cement was invented) and with no wall.

I only had this happen to me once and I didn’t do it. I was being “helped” by one of those farmers who knew everything there was to know about everything, and when I told him not to be too enthusiastic about removing stones from the wall, he told me that the wall had stood for hundreds of years and would be standing long after I had gone. He wasn’t quite accurate! When I heard the first slight rumble, I was gone, and the wall didn’t stand long after my departure. It came down around the farmer and he was left standing on a stepladder with a new view of his farm from his byre.

So the best advice for getting a vacuum pipe through a stone wall was that of hedgehogs making love – the job needs to be done very carefully.

Once I was fitting a new machine away up in Wensleydale and I was working on my own as all the farm staff were in the hayfield. It was about half past two on a nice summer’s day – ideal for haymaking.

I was standing on a three-legged milking cracket (stool), and carefully taking out small stones form inside the wall, when without any warning, one of the throughstones (large flat stones that tie the wall together) slipped and fell sideways trapping my wrist. My arm was at full stretch and I could not move it in any direction.

The cracket, (as crackets were prone to be), was very precarious and any movement on my part was likely to topple the blessed thing and I would have been left suspended by my wrist. I spent a very uncomfortable afternoon stuck in the hole until the men came in from the hayfield. In the way of what usually happens when someone else’s discomfort is witnessed, it was several seconds before they perceived the danger I was in, and were able to stop laughing and release me.

Daft Laddies - North Tyne Milking Farms

Daft Laddies. Farming Tales of North Tyne and Rede 50 years on.

By Clive Dalton and Donald Clegg

An extract from the book - Daft Laddies. Farming Tales of North Tyne and Rede 50 years on (2003) By Clive Dalton & Donald Clegg. If you would like a copy, contact donaldclegg@btopenworld.com

The call for milk
The North Tyne’s heather and bent land was sheep country, but in the 1940s and 1950s there were many farms that responded to the war and post-war cry for more food, especially milk, to feed a hungry nation.

Farms below Humshugh always milked cows where there was plenty gud grund to grow fothor (hay/straw) and roots (turnips/mangel) for the winter. But in those far off days, dairy cows were milked right up the valley from Kielder doon to Redesmouth. The table below is based on memory and a guestimate or two, so your verifications would be welcomed.

Hand milking
Electricity hadn’t reached the top end of the valley at this time so hand milking was the order of the day for farms above Bellingham. It was a great job on a cowld winter mornin’ snugglin’ up tiv an aad cuw with your peaked cap on backwards, provided she was a nice easy milker and she wasn’t yooky with lice. The area up atween the cuw’s bag and her back leg was a grand place to revive your frozen fingers before you started milking. But neebody gat upset when milking machines arrived - except the cuws for a day or two.

The milking machine
 All farms had a 'Simplex' model milking bucket plant machine.  After assembly, you carried the unit with the tubes and pulsator on the lid, in between each cow and milked each in turn.  When the can was full, you emptied it into a separate bucket to take to the cooler where the milk trickled down over a corrugated plate with cold water going through inside.  Then the milk flowed into the big churn to go off to the milk stand and be picked up by truck to go to the factory.  Other farms would take the churns to the station to go to the factory at Stocksfield.

Simplex milking machine bucket unit

 
Where did the milk go?
Well it was first siled (filtered), and then tipped into a small holding tank and run over a plate cooler. The cold water circulated inside the cooler as the milk flowed over the outside into a 10-gallon can. When full to the mark, the can had its lid brayed on and a label attached.

In the early days you had to take the cans to the nearest railway station by whatever means you had, horse and cart, Fergie tractor and milk box, motor bogie or barrow. But then road wagons collected it from milk stands at farm gates on the road side. Journey’s end for the milk was the Co-op Dairy in Stocksfield.

The cleaned and sterilised empty cans then came back and were collected when you delivered the full ones. There was a communal milk stand in Bellingham beside the Demesne farm for the Demesne, Foundry farm, Reenes and the Boat farm. It was a great spot to catch up with local scandal, and get your leg pulled about where yi’d been seen on Saturday night, and whee yi’d been seen wi! It made you review and improve your evasion plans for the following weekend!

Pickering the Hexham vet
Dairy farming resulted in a lot more work for the Hexham veterinarians (the Pickerings) who serviced the valley. Compared to beef cows, there were many more cases of “ewor clap” (mastitis), “splet tits” to stitch up when a cow stood on it’s bed mate’s delicate udder.

There was also milk fever and staggers when the cuw went doon and refused to get up. It was often assumed that a cow that couldn’t or wouldn’t get up was just being an akward lazy owld bitch! So an ancient trick to get her up was to take the cat by the tail and pull it back along the cow’s back so it stuck its claws in. That did nowt for the cow or the cat! The cure was a bottle of calcium or magnesium and not milking her for a day or so. And even blowing air into her udder with a bicycle pump was used to stop milk secretion.

A hingin cleanin was the worst problem. This retained afterbirth was dealth with by the poor vet having to strip off to his bare torso (often in a freezing byre) before feelin inside the cuw and fishin oot the stinking afterbirth. Sadly for us Daft Laddies there wor need women vets in them days.


Which breed?
There were constant arguments as to which was the best breed. The well-respected Shorthorn that evolved in County Durham was the obvious choice. There were dairy types of Shorthorn and places like the Cumberland where their county Farm Institute at Newton Rigg had bred noted strains, as well as breeders in the Allendale district.

The Shorthorn was classed as a “dual-purpose” breed as it provided both milk and beef which in the end was the main reason for its demise. Dual-purpose was seen by many as “nee porpose”. The heifers could throw to beef and the steers or bullocks were ower dairy type and wouldn’t fatten. Trying to keep the right balance got too complicated so it was easier to swallow your pride and change breeds to a real dairy type.

The Dutch Friesians were seen as muckle greet hungry brutes that milked weell but wud eat an eye o’ hay afore-noon, and fill fower barras o’ skitta eftor-noon. And another complaint was that theor tits wor like Porcy Bolam’s prize parsnips - far ower big and easy to get squeshed. Daft Laddies liked them for hand milking as you could get two hands on the one tit! These were not good when milking machines arrived.

Fettlin the owld byres
The dairy regulations required a lot of money to be spent on renovating the old byres and making a milk room for the cooler and sink to wash the dairy utensils and the milking machine. Many byres had to be gutted and concrete laid to replace the hardened muck floors. Many a North Tyne cuw-standin’ in a byre was just a railway sleeper to form the edge of the grip (muck channel), and accumulated solid dry muck for the cow to lie on. It was cheap and effective and a warm lie for a cuw, if perhaps not ower hygienic for the dairy regulations.

To comply with the law, the Milk Marketing Board’s Dairy Inspector (Miss Armstrong) had te cum from Hexham to approve the farm for a milk license, and for that you had to have cement rendered waalls up to a certain height, and there were specifications for the height of the back and front of the grip, and the faalls (slopes) on all the floors. And you had to have concrete divisions between cuws to replace the historic wooden stanchions, and much more.

At right of picture is the old 'dairy' at the Hott Farm which had to be built to keep Miss Armstrong happy! Don't think it would pass now.

Many a comment was made that with all this bureaucracy, the milk was nee cleanor than frae the owld byres sweethed in cobwebs! And of course every pint of milk had te gan in the can. You dare not sneak a bit of cream off the top of the can to put on your crowdy in winter, or strawberries in summer - at least not officially!

Changes in the valley
It brought about major changes in valley farming. More root crops (turnips, mangels and kale) had to be grown, and more cereals (oats and barley) for both grain and straw. The result was mare muck to spread back on the farm so more machinery had to be bought – and all this meant more work for farm staff. It was a time when more purchased artificial fertiliser (bag muck) had to be bought – which resulted in heavier hay crops that the old hands sartainly didn’t like in catchy weathor! The one big positive of those milking days was the farmers got a regular income which they had never had before.

It all ended about the early 1960s when farms went back to beef. The farmers and their families who worked long and hard in those dairy days should be proud of the contribution they and the valley made to Tyneside’s milk supply during the war and post-war years.

Monument needed
They deserve a monument in Bellingham, maybe where the old milk stand used to be at the Demesne. A silver milk can would be nice, surrounded by three or four figures filling their pipes or maybe taking a pinch of snuff from Dobbin’s shop, having a crack aboot we’s gittin away, we’s wife hes tean off wi’ the dip salesman from the Scotch side, and the middlin trade at the mart.

Getting top results with dairy cow Artificial Insemination (AI)

While the genetic merit of bulls in dairy AI programs is improving all the time, the costs of running an AI program are increasing due to factors like rising fuel charges, increasing wages and declining cow fertility. So it's very important to get the best from an AI program which requires a good knowledge of animal-human interaction.

When will a cow come on heat?

• Cattle reach puberty about 6-9 months of age but some calves can come on heat as early as 4 months of age – especially rapidly-growing Friesian calves.
• Puberty depends more on weight than age. If you ever have calves that get pregnant, it's best to have them aborted as soon as you notice excess udder development as there may be no other signs. Check with your veterinarian for the appropriate action.
• Dairy heifers are mated as yearlings at 12-14 months old to calve around 24 months.
• Gestation in the cow is 283 days but in the dairy industry 14 days either side of this time is accepted as normal variation in terms of deciding the sire of the calf.
• Beef heifers have not traditionally been mated as yearlings, but this is changing if they are well grown to get more profit from the enterprise.

• A cow will cycle (show oestrus or come on heat) about three weeks after calving, but it is more likely to be six weeks. Don't mate her at that first 3-week cycle: leave her to her second cycle.
• She should then cycle every 21 days after that if not pregnant, with a range from 18-24 days.
• An unmated cow will cycle all year round with slightly less activity in winter.
• There are nymphomaniac cows that cycle every 3 weeks all year round and never get pregnant after mating. They are a great nuisance.
• If a cow doesn't get pregnant after 3 cycles, then get rid of her.

How long does a cow stay on heat?

• She normally stays on heat for about 8 hours but this can vary from 4-12 hours.
• In the short days of winter heat periods can be at the lower end of the range
• Oestrus will start off with low intensity, rising to a state of "standing heat" when the cow will stand quite still when mounted by other cows.
• If a bull then tries to mount her she'll often not accept him straight away. This is nature's way of teasing the bull to concentrate his sperm before ejaculation.
• After this, heat intensity declines as she goes off heat and she'll let nothing mount her.

What are the signs of heat in cattle?
Cows coming on heat

• They will attempt to ride other cows but will not stand to be ridden themselves.
• They smell other cows around the genital area.
• Have a moist, red swollen vulva.
• Are restless, walk a lot and bellow for company of other cows.

Cows on heat

• Stand to be ridden and may also ride other cows.
• Hair will be rubbed off her tail head and muddy feet marks will appear on her flanks from being mounted.
• May stand with back arched and tail raised.
• Are nervous and excitable and graze less.
• Are restless, walk a lot and bellow for company of other cows.
• Have a moist red vulva with clear mucus coming from it.
• Dairy cows will hold their milk and often come into the parlour out of their normal order.
• Also watch any friendly heifers as they may try to mount their owners. It's a bit scary to turn round and find a beast up on its hind legs about to land on you!

Cows going off heat

• Will not stand to be ridden any more but may attempt to ride others
• The still smell other cows around the genital areas.

Sexually Active Groups (SAGs)

• Cows (especially in dairy herds) at various stages of their oestrus form groups of 2-6 sexually active cows referred to as a SAG.
• They are made up of cows coming on heat, those on heat and cows going off heat.
• They often rotate through the herd, forming, breaking up and reforming with new animals.
• With AI programmes it pays to keep good records of which animals have been inseminated to avoid confusion by this group behaviour.

What are short cycles?

• These are when a cow has been mated and comes on heat again after a shorter interval than the normal 18-24 days.
• Returning to oestrus in 10 days is a common abnormal interval.
• If this happens - mate the cow again and if possible use the same bull or semen to avoid confusion over parentage.
• If parentage is important then you can always have the calf DNA profiling to be certain of the sire.

What is a "silent heat"?

• This is when a cow fails to show outward heat signs but has ovulated (shed an egg).
• This can be confirmed through palpation of the ovaries by a veterinarian who can feel a Corpus Luteum or yellow body. This is where the follicle on the ovary has burst when the egg was shed.
• Silent heats are very frustrating as you have lost three weeks in time with no gain.
• The cow may have a silent heat for the first one after calving, and then start normal cycling after that.
• This problem has been reported to be more common in Friesian heifers than in Jerseys but the cause has not been fully investigated.
• If you have a cow that never cycles and vet inspection shows that she has had many ovulations – then get rid of her.
• Check her dam's records and any other relatives in the herd as it could be a genetic problem.

Why use tail paint?

• Paint a short strip (100mm wide and 150mm long) along the tail head of the cow. Tail painting is a very cheap and easy way to identify cows coming into heat or on heat.
• When the cow is mounted by another cow, the paint will be scuffed and some rubbed off. It can be a good indicator along with other signs.
• She may also have skin rubbed off her backbone and muddy feet marks on her flanks.
• Buy the proper approved tail paint and follow the instructions.
• Use one colour and after the cow is mated change the colour.
• Use the traffic light colour sequence.

Can suckling calves delay return to oestrus?
Yes it can. Suckling one calf will not delay heat much, but if you put more calves on a cow, then return to oestrus can be delayed by quite a few weeks due to the lactation drain on the cow.

Will a bull near by help cows come into heat?

• Yes - sometimes. Some dairy farmer experience shows that if the herd is slow to start cycling after calving, the sight, smell and sound of a nearby bull when walking past for milking will sometimes help stimulate their breeding cycle.
• Running a teaser bull with beef cows may also be worth trying but this means having access to one.

What is a teaser bull?

• A teaser bull is vasectomised so he is sexually active but does not ejaculate fertile semen.
• If fitted with a mating harness with coloured ink, teasers can identify cows on heat which can then be put up for AI.
• Teasers have all the dangers and disadvantages of keeping entire bulls so beware.
• Don't keep them for more than one season as they often lose libido.
• If you get a bull vasectomised, get the vet to remove one testicle as a clear indicator of his status. It's a lot easier than looking for a scar on the neck of his scrotum!

What is AI and AB?

• Artificial Insemination (AI) also called Artificial Breeding (AB) in Australia and New Zealand, and is where semen is collected from a bull and after dilution is used either fresh or frozen to inseminate a cow on heat.
• For a successful programme you have to understand some facts about cow reproduction.

When is the best time to inseminate a cow?

• The best time is when she is going off heat, or has just gone off heat because this is when ovulation occurs. So in practice - if you see a cow on heat in the morning, have her inseminated in the afternoon of that day.
• If you see her on heat in the afternoon or evening, them inseminate her the next morning or early afternoon.

How to keep your AI technician happy?

• This is important as experience shows that a stressed, frustrated technician will not achieve top results. Here are some points to consider:
• Have a good road to where your cattle are and the gates open when the technician is due to call.
• Have a good set of yards and a proper race so the technician can get behind the cow safely without risk of accident.
• Remember your responsibilities under OSH to have a safe workplace as if the technician has an accident you could be liable.
• Have a clear and clean bench space for the technician's equipment.
• Have the cow or cows handy to the yard, or in the yard waiting. Have someone there to put the cows in to the yard and restrain them.
• If you have ordered frozen semen, have a bucket of cold water handy to thaw the semen straw. Don't change your mind from the semen you have ordered when the technician arrives.
• Have a rubbish bin at the yards and keep the place tidy.
• Provide a washing facility or tap and hose for the technician to wash hands and boots.
• Provide a clean towel or some paper towels.
  
• Remember technicians have to keep moving so don't hold them up. But a flask of coffee and a chocolate bar could be tempting and help the conception rate – at the next farm if not at yours!
• For some humorous insights, read my post on the earliest days of AI on the farms of the North Tyne where I grew up - The Bull in the Bowler Hat.
  

Avoid what sperm hate:

• Smoke - no smoking
• Sunlight - provide shade
• Chemicals –don't spread disinfectant around
• Cow muck –keep the place clean

How to treat a cow after insemination?

• Quiet handling is important after insemination. Let her out of the bail into a small area on her own if she will stay there.
• If she's getting upset at being on her own, give her a mate for company.
• Try to avoid putting her back with the rest of the cows till all her riding activity has stopped.
• Stray electricity. Check any troughs near your yards for stray voltage.
  

• There are cases of low conception rates when cows have drunk from troughs soon after insemination that were found to carry stray voltage from poorly-earthed fences.

Keep the records safe

• File the insemination certificates in a safe place.
• Mark on the calendar or wall chart the date 21 days after insemination, to watch to see if the cow returns to heat and needs a repeat insemination.
• But always watch out for short returns and file these records with the first insemination record as you'll have to work out the calf's correct sire when it is born in relation to the insemination date.
• Remember gestation in the cow is 283 days with a spread and 14 days either side of that is accepted as normal variation.

What are the implications of getting cow Condition Scoring wrong?

The modern New Zealand dairy cow is a very efficient machine for turning pasture into milksolids, but she won’t do this if she’s allowed to get skinny. The genetics of the modern cow drive her to keep on milking at the expense of her body condition. There are some serious implications listed below in order of occurrence if you let this happen. You head down “Disaster Avenue” which is the polite term for your destination! So learn to condition score cows honestly and accurately.

Dairy Cow Disaster Avenue

• You milk too long into autumn so cows become emaciated.
• Cows enter winter far too thin so they don’t appreciate the cold and wet.
• Their condition is not replaced by spring so they calve too thin.
• Farmers run out of both time and feed to replace lost condition.
• Cows “switch off” and just maintain themselves before calving and don’t improve.
• The risks and costs of health problems increase as calving approaches.
• Peak lactation and total production is reduced.
• Calving at CS4 instead of CS5 will cost you 175 litres of milk and 10-15kg MS.
• Return to oestrus is delayed. Every missed cycle delays calving by 3 weeks, and lost income.
• There are more vet costs to investigate problem cows.
• Calving at CS 4 instead of CS 5 will delay oestrus by 7-10 days. 8 days x 1.5kg MS/day is another 12kg MS lost.
• One CS less at calving will also increase the number of non-cycling cows at the start of mating by 14-17%,
• More intra-vaginal devices (IVDs) are needed in spring. These have big animal welfare implications and consumer resistance to the idea of using them.
• Calving spread is increased so more “inductions” (abortions) are needed next spring with big animal welfare implications and consumer resistance
• Cows often don’t hold to first service stimulated by IVDs so expensive semen is wasted.
• Staff hate working with skinny cows, get stressed and job satisfaction declines rapidly.
• Staff quit for a better job. Replacing them is very expensive.
• You could get an urgent phone call from the Bank to explain surprise budget changes which were not budgeted for. Bankers hate surprises.
• But you can expect some extra perks from your vet clinic for being such a good client over the past year!

Condition Scoring (CS) Dairy Cows

 Cattle, farming, husbandry, body condition scoring, easy method to learn & use, implication of scoring errors, replacing body condition

Condition Scoring (CS) Dairy Cows

 By Dr Clive Dalton

 
You would think that everybody in New Zealand would know how to CS a cow. Well they don't. Let's check the history first.

History

1. CS has around for a long time. Ralph du Faur was the first one to describe it – maybe he invented the NZ system? The "NZ Farmer magazine reported du Faur's system in 1976.

2. The concept has been used in other countries for a long time using fewer scores.

3. The NZ system was described in detail in the 1970s by MAF's Te Awamutu farm adviser David Buxton. David wrote a detailed AgLink on the subject bristling with diagrams and black and white photos. It was comprehensive but hard going if you were not dedicated!

4. Then Livestock Improvement simplified the job by producing pictures in colour of cows backs and rear ends. This was much better and these were readily available until fairly recently.

5. For years at the Ruakura Dairy Farmers' open day we always had 2-3 cows on display with their CS written on their sides in large letters. Farmers learned little from this as they could not handle the cows.

6. This continued into the days of the Dairy Research Corporation (DRC) which morphed into Dexcel and again at open days cows were displayed with CS numbers on their sides. The learning I believe achieved was minimal.

7. Dexcel (now DairyNZ) continues to cover the subject at open days and in 1995 every farmer got a reference book with pictures of the same cow digitally altered to show different scores. It was reissued in 2008. This was welcomed by anxious MAF animal welfare officers who had to deal with skinny cows and needed a "gold standard" for reference in prosecutions. Dexcel even produced a DVD for farmers describing the NZ system.

8. So there has been no shortage of material over the years. The question is – how much of it has done any good? My feeling is – not a lot.

Some key points

1. Condition scoring is not a precise science.
2. The NZ system of 1 (near death) to 10 (obese) is far too complicated and it is not easy to learn.
3. But nobody ever complained and told the technical experts, consultants or teachers that it was too hard have they? Everyone kept quiet in case we exposed our mental limitations!
4. If the system was easy to learn, we would not have cows that fail to meet the well accepted CS of 5 for cows at calving – and there must be millions in North Island herds.
5. But every farmer knows that a cow must calve at CS 5 and a heifer at CS 5.5. He/she has been told this for decades and the financial implications of failure.
6. What is more, if CS is hard to learn – then it's hard to teach as the latter is the key to getting all staff members competent at scoring accurately. What's the point in having a system where you have to pay a consultant to do for you?
7. The biggest point of all! CS is a "target" that all animals in the herd have to reach, and was never meant to be an "average".
8. The concept of an average CS is daft and dangerous without a measure of the range around the average and the shape of the distribution.
9. Discussion groups were so predictable when asked what you thought the herd average CS was. The trick was always to say 4.5, especially if you were asked first, as 4.5 is non-confrontational. All the others would say "around 4.5". If you were feeling a bit bolshy say 4.4 or even 4.3, but if you wanted to please the hosts say "around 4.6 or 4.7". So the rule is - when in doubt use the "fudge" score of 4.5 and you'll never be a threat!
10. Experience from teaching is that most farmers, vets and consultants are at least half a score too generous so most cows at 5 are really 4.5 and the very popular 4.5 cows are in fact CS 4 or below. Some farmers and professionals are a whole score too high.
11. This should be no surprise as we were never taught how to CS, and we were certainly never tested to see how accurate and repeatable we were.
12. Presumably farmers were supposed to learn on their own from the LIC photos with help at Discussion Groups.
13. There are three conclusions turors come to when students don't learn. (a) - the students are dull, (b) - the material is inherently difficult (like maths) and (c) - the teaching is poor. Point (c) is the real problem but (a) and (b) always get the blame.
14. So after teaching a student, listen to them teaching someone else and then you'll hear what you said! Go over it again and get them to teach you.

All you need to know

The present system is too complicated so try this. It's based on only knowing three scores and it's probably all you need to know.

The traffic lights

You only need to know three scores:

1. GREEN: CS 5. The cow has rounded hips. Put you hand on the cow's hip bone and you cannot feel any flat area. The whole hip will fill your hand.
2. ORANGE: CS 4.5. Use the palm of your hand to see if you can feel a flat area on the top of her hip bone as it has a very flat top. Then "jiggle" your fingers along her spine in front of her hips to feel for bumps and hollows between the vertebrae. If she has flat hips and a bumpy back bone – she's a 4.5.
3. RED: CS 3. This cow has a very pointed shoulder (when it's head is up). It's like the ridge on Mont Cook with big hollows either side where all the muscle has gone. This cow is "emaciated".

Messages from the lights

• Green: GO: - cows have no problems.
• Orange. CAUTION: Too many farmers think they are greens. They still need feeding well. CS 4.5 is a useful working score for the cow and if you go down below this (by accident or design) - understand the consequences. You have to find the feed and the time to put it back. (1CS needs from 130-250 kg DM to replace).
• Red. DANGER: this is disaster as CS 3 is officially "emaciated" and you'll need a rapid rescue mission from here that will take large inputs of feed and time to respond. You could also end in court under the Animal Welfare Act 1999.

Forget about

• Using half scores.
• Using decimal places for scores between the half scores.
• Using herd average scores. These are the most dangerous things around as without a range in values around the average you can so easily be lulled into complacency.

Buy some scales

Dairy farmers never saw the need for scales, despite the fact that feeding cows or any animal for that matter is based on live weight for maintenance. Scales were considered to be too expensive and not necessary when Condition Scoring could be used instead.

This argument is no longer valid. When you live with cows every day it's hard to notice a slow decline in condition. Scales will show a weight change quickly (realising variation in gut fill in ruminants), and this will be seen long before there is a change in body condition. A small change in average weight will certainly alert you to check condition too.

You can't rely on visitors or friends to tell you that your cows are slipping in condition can you – they'll tell you if asked that the cows will average 4.5!

Scales don't tell lies and with modern systems are a valuable aid to feeding and animal health.

Milk Quality Quiz

MILK QUALITY QUIZ – 10 QUESTIONS

Have a bit of fun with these questions, and try them out without warning at morning tea or at the next staff meeting, and give a prize for the top score. Do it again a few weeks later. Then at the next meeting, go around the table and get everyone to come up with a question of their own for the rest to have a go at. Answers at the bottom.

1. How many milkings should a heifer be milked for before her milk is saved for the silo?
A 5
B 6
C 10
D 8

2. If the cold water going through you plate cooler is 14 degrees, at what temperature should your milk be entering the BMT if your plate cooler is working efficiently?
A 12 degrees.
B 18 degrees
C 16 degrees
D 20 degrees.

3. How often should you use a new set of milk filters?
A When ever you think about it.
B Once every day.
C Once a week.
D At the start of every milking.

4. What is the temperature that a hot water cylinder should be set at?
A 80 degrees
B 60 degrees
C 65 degrees.
D 90 degrees.

5. What is the minimum flow rate through a jetter.
A 3 litres/ minute
B It doesn’t matter.
C 2 litres/minute
D 2.5 litres/ minute.

6. If we started off with 50 coliform bacteria per ml of milk, in ideal growing conditions how many could we have after 100 minutes?
A 400 bacteria/ml
B 1600 bacteria/ ml
C 2000 bacteria/ml
D 800 bacteria/ml.

7. If rubberware is old and perished what is the most likely grade you will encounter?
A Coliform.
B Bactoscan.
C Thermoduric
D Somatic cell

8. If you encounter a protein soil in the plant, what is the best chemical solution to clean it off with?
A Acid solution
B Just straight hot water.
C Chlorinated alkali solution.
D Jiff

9. At what temperature should milk in the BMT be within 3 hours of completion of milking?
A 10 degrees
B 7 degrees
C 5 degrees
D 15 degrees

10. Why is it important to get milk temperatures down quickly after milking?
A It makes it easier to pump out by the tanker/
B It increases the life of the BMT/
C It slows down the multiplication of bacteria.
D Milk won’t turn to butter from the action of the stirrer.




Answers : 1-C; 2-C; 3-D; 4-A; 5-A; 6-B; 7-C; 8-C; 9-B; 10-C

How to Improve Milking

Milking is when animal-human interactions are at their maximum. There’s no more important time of day for dairy farmers and their staff and the effects of this interaction can be measured directly in the milk vat. So it’s easy to see success and failure.

The points below are presented with the permission of New Zealand’s most accomplished milking consultants – Jan Fox and Mel Eden. Contact Mel at PO Box 12-420, Hamilton, New Zealand. Email meleden@clear.net.nz

To ensure benefits for the cows

• Check the cows to see if the liners have milked them out properly.
• Check for correct rubber and dropper lengths
• Improve cluster alignment.
• Use a wire clip on cows with light quarters.
• Use vitamin creams on teats.
• Lower the milkline and vacuum levels.
• Widen the entrance way into the yard.
• Have nibs on concrete races and a footwash area.
• Have a solid lead-in wall in a HB extending at least 3-4 m from the end of the building.
• Create a funnel area to improve lead in to the HB.
• Round off the end of the breastrail.
• Use a small ‘pick-up’ gate to improve the action of the backing gate in a round yard and avoid a corner.
• Have a hock rail on the backing gate.
• Have a nib or pipe along the HB pit wall to prevent cows slipping.
• Lower the HB breast rail to improve cow comfort.
• Change the breastrail adjustment to a chain type to make easier adjustment.
• Use a zig-zag rather than a straight rail.
• Alter all pipework that bash the cows’ hips or backs.
• Check that the first bail in the HB is big enough.
• Fix the catch post so it isn’t in the cow’s face.
• Move the hinge post to be in line with the rump rail or cut it down below cow hip height.
• Use a rotating rump back bar and not a chain to hold the cows in.
• Fit an anti-jump bar in front of the cows
• Widen the exit race to at least 2.5m and preferably 3m.
• Make the drafting gate operable from the pit.
• Check and fix voltage problems.
• Roughen concrete to prevent cows slipping. Cows hate to fall down.
• Fit a spring-hinged small gate between entry/exit on rotaries.
• Cut the exit rails in rotary down to rump rail height or lower.

To ensure benefits for the milkers
• Deepen the pit.
• Use rubber mats to reduce backache and cramp.
• Reduce reach to the cows.
• Use a rope-operated switch to control the backing gate.
• Fit a warning bell on the backing gate.
• Fit a rope to shut the front gate.
• Improve lighting and use natural light.
• Use mirrors to see what’s going on in the yard.
• Use a sensor light on pathways and for tanker driver.
• Use freezer-bag ties to clear air admission holes - easier to see than pins.
• Use a peg basket on milkline to hold gear.
• Fit clear pulse tubes- easy to identify a split liner.
• Number the bails.
• Provide a sheltered area for bike and wet weather gear.
• Have a warm-water hand washing hose in the pit and milkroom.
• Put up some horticulture screening for shelter.
• Have a sheltered walkway to the milk room.
• Improve air flow to reduce fly annoyance.
• Put the regulator in the milkroom to reduce noise.
• Mount the vacuum pump and motors on the floor.
• Have a filtered air system on the pulsators to reduce noise.
• Have sealed doorway on the milkroom to reduce noise.
• Guard all pulleys and end of rotating shafts.
• Fit a froth dispenser.
• Have a separate colostrum line.
• Have a handle on the test bucket to hook over nib or into a bracket.
• Have a combined cupboard with the door as a fold-down table.
• Fit shield over the milk tank outlet to stop wash water spilling on to tanker driveway.
• Make a spray-can holder from PVC pipe and No 8 wire.
• Make a cradle for drums for easier emptying.
• Have step-up rails in the pit for short folk.
• Check the earthing on the drench gun.
• Fit a quick connector hose and tap for flushing out drench lines.
• Have a return pulley on the drench gun.
• Have a hooked nozzle on the drench gun.
• Have a raised drench race.
• Tilt the breast rail to increase drenching space.
• Use a coiled hose for the drenching system.
• Mount the drench hose on a wire to prevent wear.
• Put the radio in a sound shell so it can be heard more clearly.

Managing Milk Quality

One of the hardest things to get through to new recruits coming into dairying was that “dairy farming” was not just about growing grass and milking cows while cleaning up afterwards.

I tried to enthuse them by saying they were entering “the Food Industry”. I tried to impress them further by telling them is was actually “the Health Food Industry” and that they were producing “nutraceuticals”! I cannot claim any success as there still seems to be as many problems with milk quality today as there were 30 years ago.

The following is edited from advice by Grant Norton, Ecolab, Christchurch, NZ.

Aim

The aim of milk quality management is to achieve a Grade-Free season every year and achieve the highest classification in annual farm dairy inspection.

Good signs
• No problems at any time during the plants regular inspection.
• No breakdowns of equipment risking milk quality.
• Well-documented systems that cause no risks.
• No grades during the year.
• Staff who enjoy working there.

Bad signs
• A dirty dairy that you would not want to work in.
• A dairy you would not want to drink the milk from.
• Regular grades during the season over the whole range of defects.
• Staff who do not enjoy working there.

Why bother about Grade Free (GF) certificates?

A GF certificate is one of the most important items to have in your CV. The number of farmers and staff who fail to get them is very disappointing. They are very much easier to lose than to gain.

Farm owners are the official recipients of the certificate, so make sure that you as Herd Manager get a copy, and also get copies for all staff involved.

Once you have more than one certificate, it then becomes an even greater motivation tool for the staff as nobody wants to be the person who blows it. You can get the boss to pay bonuses on winning it, or provide surprise benefits that again are highly motivating. It’s like a team on a winning run – it’s important that you keep on winning.

The GF certificate is such a highly motivating document that a copy needs to be displayed in some prominent place at the farm dairy for all to see every day. Some farmers have a row of them above the fireplace in the front room for visitors to notice! That tells you how proud they are of their operation and their product. They know they are in ‘the health food business’ and their farm dairy is not a ‘shed’! A shed is where the tractors and bikes are kept. Where you milk the cows is now a ‘neutraceutical harvesting plant’.

Retired dairy farmer Graham McBride in the Waikato got fifteen 100% GF certificates in fifteen years of farming. He had them framed and displayed in the farm dairy which was great industry public relations for overseas visitors.

Why GF certificates go down the drain?
• Running mastitis cows in the milking herd.
• Mastitis-treated cows not marked properly ending up in the milking herd with cups on them.
• Heifers and induced cows not milked for 10 milkings before saving to the Bulk Milk Tank (BMT).
• Main herd cows not milked for 8 milkings before saving to BMT.
• Flushing milk out of plant with water when milk volumes are low.
• Not doing a hot wash night and morning while colostrum is going through the plant.
• Not enough milk in the BMT after the first saved milking to reach the stirrer to allow it and the refrigeration unit to be left on without the milk freezing.
• Not doing a RMT on all quarters of all cows before saving their milk to BMT.
• Colostrum tank not marked and locked properly so tanker empties it into the supply.
• BMT not washed properly before new season supply.
• Dirty milk line – full of patches of cheese with a hard layer of protein over it. Disturbance lets the bugs out.
• Plate cooler half blocked from misuse or lack of filters.
• Wet udders allowing bugs and sediment entry via the liners.
• Allowing cups to fall in dung and sucking into system.
• Blocked cracked and leaking jetters.
• Not enough flow through the jetters.
• Hot water too cold – someone turning thermostat down trying to save power.
• Cutting corners on the wash regime to save money or to get out of the shed early.
• Plate cooler water too warm in summer.
• Refrigeration unit taking too long to bring milk down to 7 degrees.
• Rubber ware being used too long before replacement.
• Not using enough cold water for pre rinse before hot wash.
• Forgetting to take the milk line out of the BMT before the wash routine.
• Cows fed silage or put on crop or feed pads before milking causing feed taints in the milk or high bacteria numbers on the udder.
• Not changing a split inflation straight away.
• High somatic cells at the end of lactation (often on the first or last collection) when milk volume is low and cows giving less than 5 litres.
• Test buckets dirty.

How to gain a Grade Free certificate.
• Where practical always run a separate mastitis herd and this herd should always be milked after the main herd.
• Remember to disconnect from the BMT as soon as the main herd has finished.
• Even if you are running a separate mastitis herd, these cows need to be clearly marked in some way so that if for some reason they end up in the main herd they are still identifiable and cups are not put on.
• Heifers and induced cows need to be withheld from the BMT for at least 10 milkings. These cows could have colostrum present for this long.
• It needs to be 8 milkings for main herd cows but also make sure they are through their Dry Cow Treatment withholding period before their milk goes into the BMT.
• Be very careful flushing milk out of a plant when your milk volumes are low. In the early part or late part of the season you may be only saving 300 litres of milk/milking. It takes very little water to mix with that small amount to cause a freezing point grade. Remember you will be saving 4 milkings before pick up so that is also 4 lots of water. Water can also be contaminated with coliform bacteria so could contaminate your milk.
• Colostrum melts in the range of 48-60°C so it is imperative that a hot wash is used night and morning while you have colostrum going through the plant. If you don’t remove all the fat (i.e cold wash at night) there is a possibility that you could have some remaining that contains some inhibitory substance that could contaminate the next milking.
• If you do not have enough milk in the silo to leave the refrigeration unit on all the time, your milk will warm up allowing the bacteria to start multiplying which will cause a grade very quickly. Coliforms can double in numbers every 20 minutes. Start with 50 bugs/ml and do the maths!
• Strep uberis causes environmental mastitis. A uberis-infected quarter can contain millions of bacteria. One cow with one infected quarter if it is bad enough, is enough to give you a bacto ‘F’ on an early pick-up. Remember she will go into the BMT 4 times before pick-up.
• Also remember a cow can have a low somatic cell count and still have a strep uberis infection. Do a RMT test on every quarter of every cow before you start saving her milk. Treat her if necessary.
• Clearly label all colostrum tanks to prevent accidental pick-up by the tanker driver.
• BMT should be checked thoroughly and hand scrubbed if necessary. Make sure you check the back entry, under the door seal, outlet, stirrer and behind and below the door on the inside. Generally it will be a protein soil so scrub with a chlorinated alkali solution. Wear gloves and goggles. Do not scour the affected area with a product like jiff as this will scratch the surface of the silo making it easier for soil to stick to.
• The whole plant should be checked and cleaned and rubberware replaced as necessary during the off-season. You should also do monthly checks during the season and fix any issues before they start causing a problem. If you see a problem building in the milk line, identify the cause, fix it and then scrub the area clean.
• Always have a filter in place if anything is going through the plate cooler. Be careful not to tear the filter while putting up the housing. Filters are designed for a single milking only.
• If you have to wash udders before cupping wipe with a paper towel.
• Keep the milking platform as free from dung as possible. Dung can contain up to 5 billion bacteria/gm. If you suck it up into the system and get tested, you grade.
• During every pre-wash cold rinse, you should check the performance of every jetter. If a jetter is blocked or leaking, fix it before you carry on. There should be a minimum of 3 litres of water/minute going through every jetter. If unsure put it on a test bucket and time it for a minute and measure. You should have at least 3 litres in the test bucket.
• Hot water needs to be a minimum of 80° C at the cylinder. Remember fat doesn’t start to melt till 48°C so you must maintain your wash above 60°C. If you don’t, soils will start depositing back onto the surface.
• Don’t ever cut corners with the wash regime. Use the required amount of cold rinse (at least 15 litres/set of cups) and then your hot wash at 10 litres/set of cups, with the right amount of chemical in this hot wash. Your wash solution needs to contact the milking surface for a reasonable amount of time to enable it to soften and then remove the soil loading.
• Keep an eye on the temperature of the plate cooler water especially in the warmer months. Remember that a plate cooler working efficiently should cool your milk down to within 2 degrees of the cold water going through it. Therefore the colder your water is the less energy your refrigeration unit will use to get the stored milk down to 7 degrees. This also creates less time for bacteria to multiply while the milk is above 7 degrees.
• If rubberware is not replaced as it wears out, it starts to break down and absorb milk into it, creating a home and a food source for bacteria, especially thermodurics. All black milk hoses and droppers should not be used for any longer than 2 seasons before replacement. Inflations have a 2500 milking life. After that they are a lot less efficient and will not milk cows out properly. Milk pump diaphragms should be replaced at season start and again just before Christmas.
• If you have a mechanical milk pump then the mechanical seal on that pump should be replaced before the start of every season regardless.
• Be very careful flushing milk out of the plant with water. Always remember to disconnect from BMT before doing your plant wash.
• If you have to use feed pads of feed crop or silage, then the best time to do this is straight after milking to avoid contamination of milk with taints and bacteria etc.
• If an inflation splits inside the shell, you will get bacteria entering the milk through that split. You will also have milk enter the pulsator airline which needs to be rinsed out while it is still wet. If left it can cause grade issues. Take the end off the pulsator line and rinse it out with the wash down hose.
• Hand stripping cows is the only true way of assessing the amount of mastitis in the herd. If somatics are on the rise, then this should be adopted and suspect cows given a RMT. Cows that are producing low levels of milk should be dried off, as they will be contributing the major share of the bulk somatic cell count. Remember somatic cells do not increase once the milk has left the cow.
• Test buckets should be treated just like the plant and washed after every use. Pay particular attention to the milk hose as this is the part that comes into contact with the plant. Quarter milkers should be banned from the dairy altogether.

House cow - do you really want one?

Are you sure you want a cow?
In these days of increasing concern over “healthy food” for the family, there’s an great temptation to keep a milking cow. But be warned; YOU (and all others likely to be involved) should have some very good reasons for wanting a house cow. It could be very much easier to buy milk from the shop!

Points FOR:
• You get fresh milk the way nature intended it to be.
• The pleasure of milking the cow yourself.
• It’s a great educational experience for children.
• You can make a range of dairy products from the milk.
• Surplus milk can be fed to other animals – calves, pigs.

Points AGAINST:
• You have to milk the cow.
• Her milk will vary in quantity and quality over the lactation.
• The cow has to become pregnant at regular intervals – she will have to be mated.
• She’ll need a break from milking (4-6 weeks dry period)
• The cow has to be user-friendly to avoid accidents to the milker.
• The milk you drink will not be pasteurised – so the cow must be disease free.

Which breed?
• It really depends on how much milk you want. You can even milk a beef cow.
• Here’s what the main dairy breeds produce (from NZ Dairy Board statistics):

Holstein-Friesian (HF): 3800 litres of milk; 165kg of milkfat; 131kg of Protein
Jersey: 2790 litres; 160kg; 113kg
HF x Jersey: 3445 litres; 170kg; 127kg
Ayrshire: 3452 litres; 150kg; 122kg

• The Milking Shorthorn and Guernsey are also specialised dairy breeds available in small numbers in New Zealand.
• The British “dual–purpose” breeds produce both milk and beef. Examples are the Red Devon, South Devon, Welsh Black and Sussex and they all make good house cows. They are classed as minority breeds and the Sussex as a rare breed.
• Most of the “Continental” breeds are dual-purpose cattle in their native countries and some are good milk producers. The best example would be the Simmental.

Size
• This can be an issue if you are concerned about how much feed (Dry Matter) the cow will eat, and the facilities you may need for milking.
• The Holstein-Friesian is the largest dairy breed with mature cows easily reaching 500kg.
• The Jersey is the smallest with mature cows averaging around 360 - 380kg.

Age of cow
• Milk production increases with age of cow.
• First lactation yields are the lowest, and production peaks at about lactation 6-8.

Temperament
• It’s vital that your house cow has a very good temperament and is quiet and friendly with humans.
• You may want to milk her in the paddock so she should welcome your approach and not run away.
• Temperament is mostly controlled by the way the animal was treated as a calf.
• You can control this if you rear your own cow.
• But if you purchase a cow you’ll have to assess her temperament before taking ownership.
• Getting the cow used to handling and hand milking may take some time- depending on her previous experience.

The maiden heifer
• Here you milk a first-calf or maiden heifer that you may have reared yourself.
• If hand reared, she should be very user friendly and you should be able to go up to her in the paddock, and be able to handle her udder and teats without getting kicked.
• If she has been purchased and is not as friendly, then you must do a lot of bonding before calving.
• If you can’t get up to her in the paddock, get her into a confined space and give her a lot of TLC with special attention to scratching her rear end, and massaging her udder and teats.
• Some concentrate feed is the way to build a bond – feed her where you are going to eventually milk her.

How are you going to milk her?
• A cow “lets down” her milk. This is induced by the hormone oxytocin and the impulse only lasts 5-6 minutes. So there’s a time limit if you want to milk the cow out cleanly
• The cow’s udder should be completely emptied approximately every 12 hours to maintain lactation and avoid mastitis (udder infection).
• Fast efficient hand milking takes practice. Make sure you have the skills.
• You may need to make a bail along the side of a shed or yard to confine the cow while hand milking. Make sure it’s wide enough for both the cow to stand and you to sit while milking, so that you have a safe escape if the cow moves over towards you while seated.
• The other approach is to remove any milk by hand that you need for the house, and let a calf suckle what’s left in the udder. The cow may respond with a second let-down response to the calf suckling.
• If you use a small milking machine, this will empty the udder quickly but make sure that it is working correctly or you’ll do damage to the udder and cause mastitis.
• Ask at your nearest milking machine parts supplier for names of approved machine testers.

Feeding
• The Dry Matter intake of a dry cow will be about 1.6% of her liveweight.
• The Dry Matter intake of a cow at peak lactation (6-8 weeks after calving) will rise to 3.9% of her liveweight.
• This means that when the cow is dry, you will be able to maintain her on fairly short pasture and a hay or silage supplement.
• But when she calves to meet her lactation needs, she’ll need good long pasture (eg 2500-2700kg DM/ha or 15cm long).
• If she is suckling one or more calves as well as proving milk for the house, she will benefit from some meal at each milking, and creep feed the calves with calf meal.

Mating
• About six weeks after calving, the cow will come into heat. (oestrus, bulling).
• She may show heat 3 weeks after calving, but don’t mate her at that heat – mate her at the second heat.
• Cows can be later coming into heat after calving for these reasons:

• If they are producing a lot of milk.
• If they are suckling calves.
• Have had a difficult calving.
• Have had twins.
• Had retained afterbirth.
• Had milk fever, grass staggers or ketosis.
• Are low in body condition – Condition Score below 4.5.

• Heat signs are:

• Riding or mounting other cows.
• Standing to be mounted by other cows.
• Sexually Active Groups (SAG)of 3-5 cows riding each other.
• Hair rubbed off her hip and pin bones from being ridden.
• Bellowing.
• Mucous discharge from the vulva.
• Withholding her milk.
• Walking around the paddock seeking the company of other cows.

• She will stay on heat for 18-24 hours.
• She will cycle every 21 days – with a range from 18-24 days.
• A cow ovulates (sheds eggs) after she has gone off heat.
• If you use Artificial Insemination:

If you see her on heat early in the morning – inseminate her near lunch time
If you see her on heat in the afternoon – inseminate her the next morning.

Calving
• Normal presentation is head and feet first. If you find anything different- seek experienced help.
• If you don’ t want the cow to suckle it’s own calf- take it away at birth.
• If you want to add an extra calf, do it at calving by pouring some birth fluids on the foster calf.
• Make sure the calf has at least 2 litres of colostrum (first milk) before 6 hours.

Animal health
• Prevention is always cheaper than cures.
• Mastitis (udder infection) is the biggest risk from:

• Calving in dirty paddocks
• Spread from other infected cows via the milking machine or dirty hands
• Not milking the cow out regularly and correctly
• Damage to the udder and teats.

• For mastitis seek veterinary advice to use the correct antibiotic.
• Discard antibiotic-treated milk for at least 8 milkings.
• Sore teats – apply udder salve after each milking or calf suckling.
• At calving watch for metabolic diseases:

• Milk fever – caused by lack of calcium.,
• Grass staggers – caused by lack of magnesium.
• Ketosis – caused by lack of sugar (glucose).

• Bloat – excess gas in the rumen caused by eating pasture rich in clover. Drench cows regularly with bloat oil when on lush pasture.
• If you have to stab a cow with bloat – seek experienced help.
• Leptospirosis – make sure the cow is vaccinated against this bacterial disease that can also affect humans.
• Tuberculosis (Tb) – contact AssureQuality in New Zealand or your appropriate government department to have the cow tested.

Dairy Farming Glossary

Air admission hole: Hole in cluster to admit air.
Blind quarter: Udder quarter that does not produce milk.
Bulk milk cell count (BMCC): Measure of somtatic cells in the farm’s bulk milk.
Bulk milk tank (BMT): Tank that holds milk. Called milk vat.
Breeding worth (BW): Measure of genetic merit of an individual animal.
Claw: Manifold that holds the teatcups to form the cluster, connecting them to the long milk tubes.
Colostrum: First milk of a cow after calving.
Contract mating: Contract where top cows are mated to supply bull calves back to a breeding organisation.
Cowshed: Building where cows are milked. There are many kinds.

• Tandem: Cows stand in straight line and milked from side.
• Herringbone: Cows milked in rows standing at an angle to the milker who stands in a pit at udder level. Cups applied at the cow’s side or through hind legs.
• Rotary: Cows milked on rotating platform. Cups applied through hind legs and may be removerd automatically.

Cup remover: Device to remove cups from cow when milking is completed.
Droppers: Tubes that hang down from milk line to carry milk or pulsation tubes.
Expected calving order: Listing of cows in order in which they should calve.
Filter: Device to remove main soil from milk.
Filter element: The paper or cloth liner inside the filter to collect the soil.
Foremilk: The first milk removed from each teat at milking. Used to check for mastitis.
Herd testing: Official sampling the milk from each cow for recording purposes.
Inflation: Same as liner.
Interceptor: Vessel on main airline to prevent liquid or foreign matter getting into vacuum pump.
Jetter: Device that connects to cups for flushing (washing).
Keratin: Cells that accumulate in teat canal to keep it closed.
Lactation worth (LW): Meaure of the genetic merit of an individual animal.
Let down: Release of milk from udder caused by hormone oxytocin.
Liner (inflation): Flexible sleeve that fits inside teat cup shell.
Long milk tube: Connecting tube between claw and milk line.
Long pulse tube (dropper); Connecting tube between tube and pulsator.
Mastitis: Infection of the udder.
Milk contact surface: Surface in direct contact with milk.
Milkfat: Fat portion of raw milk.
Milkflow indicator: Device to show milk flow leaving the cluster.
Milk line: Line that carries the milk from the cow to bulk milk tank.
Milk meter: Device to measure milk yield and allow a sample to be taken for testing.
Milk protein: Proteins in milk – albumin, globulin and casein.
Milk pump: Pump that moves milk from milk line through the filter and cooler on the way to the BMT.
Milk soil: Any contaminant of milk found on the plant such as protein film.
Milksolids: The fat plus protein in milk.
Milking machine: Device to enable milk to be drawn from a cow. Includes vacuum and pulsation system, clusters and other components.
Milking ratio: Percentage of the pulsation cycle during milk flow from the teat.
Milking robot: Machine which allows cows free access to be milked automatically when they choose.
Plate cooler: Device made of plates through which water and milk flow separately so water removes heat from the milk. Heat exchanger.
Pulsator: Valve mechanism to produce cyclic pressure change to squeeze and rest teat inside the liner.
Pulsation controller: Mechanism to operate pulsators.
Receiver: Vessl tha trecieves milk from the milkline and feeds the releaser.
Production Worth (PW): Estimate of genetic value of an individual animal.
Releaser: Mechanism that removes milk from under vacuum and discharges it to atmospheric pressure.
Reliability: Shows the degree of confidence that can be placed on a BW or PW.
Reverse-flow cleaning: System where cleaning fluids are pumped through the plant under positive pressure in the reverse direction to normal milk flow.
Sanitary trap: Interceptor vessel between milk system and air system to prevent milk overflow into airline.
Short milk tube: Connects the pulsation chamber and the claw.
Short pulse tube: Connects pulsation chamber with the claw.
Somatic cell count: Measures white blood cells in milk and used to indicate sub-clinical mastitis.
Standard plate count (SPC): Measure of bacterial contamination.
Stimulation: Washing or massaging the cow’s udder to encourage milk letdown.
Supernumary teat: A small extra teat that usually does not produce milk.
Surface cooler: Same as plate cooler.
Teat:

• Teat orifice: Opening on end of teat.
• Teat canal: Opening through end of teat into the udder.
• Teat cistern: Space inside teat into which milk flows.
• Teat grand cistern: Space inside lower part of udder where milk accumulates.

Teatcup: Part of milking machine made up of the shell, short pulse tube and liner.
Teatcut crawl: Action of teatcup crawling up the teat during milking.
Teat spray: Sanitiser sprayed on the the teat orifice after milking to reduce mastitis.
Traits other than production (TOP): Traits such as temperament and udder and teat conformation which are not included in selection idexes.
Udder: The cow’s milk gland made up of four quarters each with a teat. Unit: The assembly of teat cups and ancillary equipment used to milk the cows.
Vacuum gauge: Pressure gauge that shows vacuum level in the system.
Vacuum pump: Pump that generates the vacuum to work the milking machine.
Vacuum regulator: Automatic valve that keeps a steady vacuum level.
Vacuum tank: Same as regulator.
Vacuum tap: Clamp tap or cutoff valve on long milk tube.
Vacuum tube: Connecting tube between reciever and airline.
Vat: Holding tank for milk. Same as BMT.
Venturi: Device that feeds chemicals into the discharge line of a reverse-flow pump.