Field Measurement of Milking Vacuum Using Flow Simulation

Abstract

Many dairy veterinarians offer milking equipment evaluation to their clients as part of their routine services. While these services have usually been initiated largely for mastitis control reasons, improving milking performance is becoming a more important (and marketable) justification for these services, especially as dairies grow larger. Milking performance can be improved with proper vacuum settings and proper equipment configurations.

Much progress has been made in the past few years to simplify equipment evaluation and to clarify the analysis of the results. This paper discusses the routine field use of an artificial, portable flow simulator to measure claw outlet vacuum.^9,10