Milk Quality on Danish Farms with Automatic Milking Systems

The bulk-milk quality of 98 Danish farms with automatic milking systems was analyzed from 1 yr before introduction of automatic milking until 1 yr after. Bulk-milk total bacterial count, spores of anaerobes, somatic cell count (SCC), and freezing point increased when automatic milking was introduced...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of dairy science 2002-11, Vol.85 (11), p.2869-2878
Main Authors: Rasmussen, M.D., Bjerring, M., Justesen, P., Jepsen, L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal productions
Animals
automatic milking
Bacteria, Anaerobic - growth & development
Bacteria, Anaerobic - isolation & purification
Biological and medical sciences
Cattle
Cell Count - veterinary
Colony Count, Microbial
Dairying - instrumentation
Dairying - methods
Denmark
Female
Freezing
freezing point
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Lactation
Milk - chemistry
Milk - microbiology
Milk - standards
Quality Control
somatic cell count
Spores, Bacterial
Terrestrial animal productions
Time Factors
total bacterial count
Vertebrates
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Summary:The bulk-milk quality of 98 Danish farms with automatic milking systems was analyzed from 1 yr before introduction of automatic milking until 1 yr after. Bulk-milk total bacterial count, spores of anaerobes, somatic cell count (SCC), and freezing point increased when automatic milking was introduced and the frequency of milk-quality failures almost doubled. Milk-quality failures were most frequent in the first 3 mo after the start of automatic milking. The increase in spores of anaerobes indicated that the increase in total bacterial count originated partly from contamination of milk from the teat surface and partly from lack of cleaning of the milking equipment or cooling of the milk. The increase in bulk-milk SCC indicated that milk from clinically infected cows and cows with high cell counts was not diverted to the same degree, milking automatically rather than milking conventionally. A self-monitoring program including survey of the bulk-milk quality was established to help farmers in the transition period going from conventional to automatic milking. The program was introduced on 84 farms. Farms on the self-monitoring program reduced bulk-milk cell count. Application of the program did not reduce the frequency of high total bacterial counts and freezing points of the bulk milk to the level of conventional milking. However, the program reduced the overall frequency of milk-quality failures.
ISSN:0022-0302
1525-3198
DOI:10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(02)74374-9