“Useful Milking Machines”

Milking is most essential, regular and routine activity on dairy farms. Milking of animals encourages milk production, relieves udder pressure, increases animal comfort. Higher productive potential of dairy animals, increased through genetic improvement, was key factor to limit human capacities for hand making. Farm mechanisation practices proposed use of milking machines on modern dairy farms.

Milking of dairy animals is a skillful act of applying pressure by four fingers and palm on teats, which intern moves milk from storage points of udder to central milk duct of teat- teat cistern. Milk let down reflex is considered as prequisite to drain out milk. Oxytocin hormone is responsible for milk let down reflex. When total milk is drained out and stripping is non responsive, milking is complete.

Hand making is traditional practice in moderate yielding cows and buffaloes. Since, buffaloes are hard milkers extra pressure is required for the milking. Human error and negligence in proper milking are responsible for incomplete milking, painful milking, wrong approaches, injuries to teats, reduction in output, unhygienic milking and many more losses.

Cleanliness and hygiene are important practically adaptable aspects. Milking dairy animals unhygienically has led to crores of yearly losses at area level since last 40 years. These losses are actually sustained by dairy owners , thereby loosing unlimited potential productivity of animals. Hence, almost all developed countries are now shifted to machine milking practices.

Machines have been developed to apply suction drain out the milk from dairy animals safely. Machines are used to apply soft pressure on teats and simultaneously collect milk from milk cistern by suction. Simple suction apparatus has been deviced by KVK, Namakkal for milking of animals. Automatic milking machines are now available in the market for safe, comfortable, complete milking under strict hygienic precautions. Robotic milking is recent breakthrough for milking of very high yielders.

Milk machines are useful on farm to reduce labour dependency, mastitis incidence, teat injuries and simultaneously scientific milking practices, 3X milking schedules, clean milk production can be attempted. The cost of the machine justifies on farms having 10 milch animals and per day 200 litres of milk production. Small holders can avail milking machine facility in corporative groups, which is known as community milking at village level.

Milk machines are useful to initiate essential milk let down reflex in dairy animals, which facilitates weaning of calves immediately after birth as a new management approach. Death of newborn calves, particularly in buffaloes, is not a limitation to practice regular milking. Feeding of known volume of milk is beneficial to monitor health, growth, well being of the calves. More particularly, milking machines are most useful to avoid rampant use of Oxytocin injections unnecessarily.

For milk, it is common experience that, ‘more milk is drain, the greater the produced’. Relieving udder promotes milk production by udder cells. Buffaloes can be milched comfortably with milk machines. There is increasing demand for milk machines useful in small ruminants. Anti -propaganda for utility of milk machines, questioning safety of the machine and blood in milk, have limited potential use of milk machines in rural areas.

Mechanised milking promotes better quality of the milk for consumers and fetches your milk rates due to scientific practices. Machines are also proved to be safe in terms of animal comfort and welfare. There Is dire need to propagate utility of milky machines and create awareness for its safety in all rural parts of India.