COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT MILKING SYSTEMS IN CROSSBRED DAIRY CATTLE
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Date
2018
Authors
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Publisher
COLLEGE OF VETERINARY AND ANIMAL SCIENCES, POOKODE WAYANAD
Abstract
Milking operation is the major activity of every dairy farm affecting the
quantity, quality and the cost of the milk produced. This study was envisaged to
compare and evaluate electrical milking machine (T1), hand milking (T2) and manual
milking machine (T3), on crossbred dairy cattle. Fifteen freshly calved crossbred dairy
cows were randomly selected and allotted to three different treatment groups adopting
switch-over design. The cows were milked for 60 days both in the morning and
evening sessions. There was no significant difference in the average daily milk yield
obtained by different milking systems. The average total retained milk was
significantly (P <0.01) higher in T3 compared to T1 in both the milking sessions. The
average milk extraction rate was significantly (P <0.01) higher in T1 (i.e. 1.26 ± 0.10
kg/min) compared to T2 and T3 (0.69 ± 0.04 kg/min and 0.66 ± 0.05 kg/min,
respectively). The milk composition, revealed no significant difference in the fat per
cent, but significant (P <0.01) difference in Solid-Not-Fat, specific gravity and protein.
The mean average electrical resistance of milk was significantly (P <0.01) higher in
T1 and T3 compared to T2. The physiological parameters of the milker (Blood Pressure,
Heart Rate and Respiratory Rate) compared before and after milking revealed that, the
stress undergone by the milker was higher in T2 compared to T1 and T3. The Somatic
Cell Count was more in the milk obtained by hand milking followed by manual
machine and electrical milking machine (5.145 ± 0.080, 5.791 ± 0.093 and 5.152 ±
0.094 somatic cells/ml). The Total Viable Count of bacteria in milk was significantly
(P <0.01) higher in hand milking (T2) (456.867 ± 37.838 x 103
cfu/ml) than in T1 and
T3 (280.70 ± 30.428 and 312.93 ± 29.705 x 103
cfu/ml). The study revealed that, hand
milking caused much stress to the milker and the microbiological quality of milk was
poor. The cost of milk production was least in T3 compared to T1 and T2. The Electric
milking machine was found to be superior in terms of quality of milk and ergonomics
of milking. However, Manual milking machine, intermediate in terms of cost, quality
and ergonomics, can be recommended for small holder dairy farmers with the benefit
of cost effectiveness and improved milk quality than hand milking.
Key words: Milking systems, ergonomics, milk quality, hand milking, machine
milking.
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