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Pipeline milking
Milking cows is an activity that can last for several hours for the larger herds, two or even three times a day, even although
milking one cow would not take more than about 10 minutes.
Sooner or later you need to replace the milking
equipment in your pipeline milking system. At
this point, the dilemma you oen face is
whether to change to a milking parlour with a
loose housing system, or stay with the existing
pipeline system.
e fact is that the pipeline milking system has
a great number of bene ts to offer you, your
milkers and your cows.
Permanent pipelines have been introduced
into the dairy industry as a means of increasing
operating efficiency and of reducing operating
costs. Widespread acceptance of permanent
milk pipelines by the dairy plant operator, the
dairy farmer, and the milk regulatory official
largely is dependent upon the efficiency with
whi ch the pipeline can be cleaned in position.
e introduction of bulk milk collection and
refrigerated milk tanks on farms, together with
the development of large static and rotary
parlours for milking big herds, gave an impetus
to pipeline milking systems which hitherto had
been installed in large cowsheds and milking
barns.
e main advantages are that the milk is
transported under vacuum from udder to
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dairy for cooling and storage and the cleaning
and disinfection of the milking equipment can
be done in-situ with very little manual
involvement.
e pipeline milking system offers great
possibilities for individual cow handling. It is
also the system that stresses the cows least. It is
of great psychological importance for cows to
have their own space in the barn and yet have
close contact with their neighbours.
In addition, devices can be inserted into the
milking pipeline to reveal clinical signs of
mastitis, indicate the milk yield from each
cow, a l low s amples to b e t a ken and
automatically remove the cluster when milk
ow ceases (thus eliminating overmilking).
Internationally agreed standards prescribe the
minimal diameter of pipelines to enable the
milk to be transported without adversely
affecting vacuum stability at the cluster.
ese comparatively high investment, low
labour cost systems are the only practical
alternative for large and medium sized herds
milked in parlours, particularly where bulk
milk collection is involved. During milking,
operator work routines can be reduced to
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assisting cow entry and exit, udder preparation
and cluster attachment so that milking
performances of more than 85 cows per
manhour can be achieved.
Milk cooling can be done by discharging the
milk over a corrugated surface cooler
connected to the water supply or a chilled water
unit and collecting it in milk cans underneath.
Alternatively, the milk can be pumped direct
from a milk receiving vessel to a refrigerated
bulk milk tank or via a pre-cooler to an
insulated milk storage tank. Rapid cooling
prevents bacterial growth and ensures optimum
milk quality.
One can clean and disinfect the pipeline
milking plant in-situ by rst removing
manually any visible dirt and milk deposits
from external surfaces and making the
necessary adjustments to form a complete
circuit between milking and milk transfer
pipelines. Recirculate hot
detergent/disinfection solution when the initial
hot water rinse reaches 65°C at the discharge
point, for 10–15 minutes at 10–15 litres per unit.
Finally rinse with chlorinated water at 50 ppm.
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