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Livestock Notes
HOW LONG DOES IT
TAKE TO MILK A COW?
R.R. Peters
Extension Dairy Specialist
U. Of Md.
How many times have you read
that most cows milk out in 3 to 5
minutes? One widely used tex
tbook indicates that “The average
cow when milked correctly
requires about 5 minutes to milk.”
These statements may have been
true years ago but they are probab
ly not true for high producing
herds. A paper presented by Dr.
Graeme Mein (University of Wis
consin) at the 1993 annual meet
ing of the National Mastitis Coun
cil, indicated that the average
milking time of 71 cows from 5
herds was 6.4 minutes. And 95%
of cows milked out in an average
of 6.9 minutes. These cows were
in Minnesota and Wisconsin herds
with a DHIA rolling herd average
of 18,300 to 24,463 pounds.
All herds used low-line parlor
milk pipelines. System vacuum
settings ranged from 12. S to 13.5
inches of mercury. Pulsation rates
were 52 cycles per minute for four
herds and 60 cycles per minute for
one herd. Pulsation ratios ranged
from 50 to 60% on front, and 55 to
60% on rear quarters.
A linear regression equation
was fitted to the data. The regres
sion indicated that the minimum
milking time was about 5.4
minutes per milking and that the
average predicted milking time
depended on the amount of milk
produced (Table 1).
Table 1. Relationship between pounds of milk produced per milking
and predicted average minutes per milking.
Pounds of Milk
Produced Per Milking
15
25
37.5
50
Thus, based on this study of 5
high producing commercial dairy
herds, milking required 5 to 10
minutes per cow. This helps
explain why most milking parlors
operate at “4 turns per hour.” That
is, 4 groups of cows cycle through
the parlor per hour. For example,
if a dairy producer has a double-8
milking parlor with no automation
and a high producing herd, one
would predict that each side of the
parlor would take about 7 minutes
to milk plus .9 minute per cow
(7.2 minutes) for the standard
work routine time. When the milk
ing time (7 minutes) and work
routine time (7.2 minutes) are
added together, this dairy produc
er spends 14.2 minutes per group,
and parlor throughout is 4.2 turns
per hour. If the parlor has automa
tic take-offs and rapid release
gates, the work routine time may
be reduced to .7 minutes per cow,
and the turns per hoqr would
increase to 4.8.
REPRODUCTION AND
WOOL PRODUCTION IN
INBRED SHEEP
Inbreeding in meat animal spe
cies has been used with varying
degrees of Success to concentrate
desirable genes and to improve
levels of performance of economi
cally important trails. Inbreeding
is beneficial when unrelated
inbred lines are mated.
The performance of the result
ing progeny is superior to that of
the non-inbred population from
which the inbred lines were
derived. However, widespread use
of inbreeding has been limited by
a decrease in reproductive fitness
or reproductive performance in
inbred lines compared with ran
domly mated populations.
To determine the effects of
inbreeding on reproduction and
wool production in sheep, scien
tists in Idaho evaluated 54 inbred.
Avg. Minutes
Per Milking
5.4
6.6
8.1
9.6
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Dim iSr MJf \ J ImMLI
y .
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one random-bred control, and equal to sire-daughter matings or
three non-inbred control lines of , brother-sister, fuU-sib matings,
jheep. " Body weight increased in every
For at least nine years, records line; however, fleece weight
on 19,438 dams and 23,625 lambs, tended to decline and the change
from Rambouillet, Columbia, and was most evident in the two lines
Targhee sheep were collected and developed by rapid inbreeding. As
analyzed. Average inbreeding in inbreeding increased, the trend
the inbred lines during the period was downward for total weaning
was near 25 percent for iambs and weights of lambs at 120 days of
20 percent for ewes. These levels age and number of lambs weaned
of inbreeding are approximately p6r ewe exposed to breeding. In
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all cases except one, lamb produc
tion was superior in the non
inbred control group of each
breed, compared with the inbred
lines.
Not one of the 54 inbred lines
evaluated was superior to its
respective non-inbred control line
for the two most economically
important traits, weight of lamb
weaned and number of lambs
weaned per ewe exposed to breed
ing.
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