ICAR Technical Series no. 7 - Nitra Proc.

Responses to automatic milking systemcleaning in a liner. When teat cup attachment needs more than 3 minutesafter the cows entering the stall (Ipema et al., 1997) or when the lag timebetween udder stimulation and attachment of the cups increases(Labussière et al., 1999), there is negative effect on milk yield and milkingduration. In AMS, the time needed for teat cup attachment is generallyaround 2 min (2.8 in Kremer and Ordolff, 1992) suggesting that a significantnumber of milking could be less efficient than possible with AMS. At theopposite, AMS have some advantages as allocation of concentrate atmilking that is well known to optimize milk ejection (Labussière et al.,1999; Svennesten-Sjaunja et al., 1995). There is also little evidences of lackof major “stressors” in an AMS by means of behavioral and physiologicaldata (Hopster et al., 2000). Finally, there is only scarce data about the globaleffect of AMS and its surroundings (automatic gate, stall size adjustment,specific noise...) on the stimulation of the animals and physiologicaladaptation of cows. To complete these data, this work aims to comparethe physiological and zootechnical adaptations of cows subjected to atransfer from a classical milking parlor to an AMS during the beginning oftheir lactation.Material andmethodsEight multiparous Holstein cows were milked in a classical milking parlorfrom to their 10 to 12 th week of lactation. It was a 2*6 side by side parlorand milking procedure included 30 s washing and massaging, manualcup attachment and simultaneous manual cups removal when milk flowdecrease under 200 ml /min. Milking parameters were 37 KPa of vacuum,60.2 pulsation frequency and 61.2 % pulsator ratio. Then cows changed toan AMS (Prolion-Manus) as the resting part of the breed and withoutrelocation of animals. Milking procedure differs only by concentrateallocation in the stall, automatic cup attachment and a 30-s period ofautomatic teat cleaning and milking by AMS. Simultaneous cups removalwhere performed as in classical parlor. Milking parameters were 46KPa ofvacuum, 60.2 pulsation frequency and 60.2 % pulsator ratio. Cows weremilked 2 times per day (6h and 17h) in the two systems of milking in orderto eliminate the effect of milking frequency. Cows were fitted withindwelling intra-jugular catheters 2 weeks before experiment. Themeasurements during the period of adaptation to AMS lasted 4 weeks.Milk production and quality (fat, protein and CCS) content were measuredat each milking from parturition. Milk emission kinetic was recorded withan automatic prototype device during 4 milkings/week. Simultaneously,blood was sampled for oxytocin assay. Residual milk was measured afterIV injection of 2.5UI of oxytocin after the last two morning milkings ofeach week. Teat-end thickness was recorded before and after milking usingspring-loaded calipers during 4 milkings/week.Statgraphics software was used for ANOVA and succeeding meancomparison (confidence interval). For the milk flow data, the effect of milkproduction and time of milking were considered as co-variables. Milk50Conference on "Physiological and technicalaspects of machine milking"