The Value of a Parlor Audit

Mastitis. It’s the number one disease on dairy farms. As a dairy producer, you know that. As veterinarians, we also know that, and that’s why we care about it and are investing in tools to help our producers prevent this disease.

One of the tools we recently purchased is a Vadia. “What’s that?” you say. It’s a tool that we, as a veterinary profession, don’t agree on the pronunciation of. Yet, we do agree on the value of it in making sure milking centers are functioning properly. We can connect our Vadias to different points in the milking center to monitor vacuum levels. This can tell us how the equipment is functioning. Furthermore, when we connect them directly to the milking equipment, it can tell us how our parlor crews are doing preparing the cows for milking. The picture to the right show the Vadia attached to a unit during milking.

Below is a graph of the vacuum pressures collected by a Vadia during the milking of one cow. The milking unit was on for about five minutes. When the blue line is elevated, the vacuum at the teat end is high, indicating that milk flow is low. Notice how much of the time is spent in low milk flow (the time between the red bars) – near two and a half minutes or over half of the total milking time.

Contrast that with the next graph below collected from a different milking event. This time the unit was on for approximately 3 minutes and 30 seconds. Again, the blue graph is the vacuum at the teat end. How much time was spent in low milk flow here? Only about 20 seconds (again the time between the red bars).

Which milking event is better? The second one. With less time in low milk flow, we are going to have better teat end health resulting in teats that are easier to clean. This in turn should decrease our risk for bacterial contamination during milking and lower the prevalence mastitis and our SCC. In addition, with less time in low milk flow, our milkings will be more efficient allowing us to get more pounds of milk out the door.

What do your milking events look like? Is this a potential area of opportunity for you? Without looking, we don’t know.

Collecting the Vadia data is only one part of our routine parlor audits that we perform. In addition to this, we are also looking at prep-lag times, teat cleanliness scores, udder hygiene, and overmilking. We also like to look at overall cow comfort, stall design, and bedding levels.

As the summer heat continues, we that SCC will also continue to increase. Having us complete a parlor audit and coupling all of this data together can help identify potential areas of opportunity for improvement on your operation. Give us a call today to discuss how Apogee Animal Health can help you.