In this paper the collective experience and knowledge of members of the Teat Club International have been applied to

• describing effective treatments, changes in management or changes in machine settings that appear to provide successful solutions for particular teat condition problems in commercial herds;
• indicating the expected time scale - after the start of a successful treatment or management change - until improvements in teat condition should become evident;
• providing an estimate of the degree of confidence attached to each recommendation or conclusion.

Click on this link for the full paper.

http://www.uwex.edu/uwmril/pdf/MilkMachine/TeatConditionEval/07%20NMC%20TCI%20-Addressing%20teat%20condition[1].pdf

This paper reports on a study of the influenc of liners on teat end hyperkeretosis (rough and cracked teat ends). The teat canal is an important barrier against microorganism invasion of the udder. The degree of teat-end hyperkeratosis (HK) is a dynamic condition. Development of HK is influenced by many factors: some animal dependent, some dependent from seasonal condition and some from milking management. In particular milking vacuum and liner compression (LC) can influence teat-end condition. A quarter-udder experiment was performed with four liners each applied one quarter of 75 Holstein cows for a period of 3 weeks. Teat-end HK was assessed weekly. The results of this study confirm that the risk developing HK increases with liners that apply greater pressure to the teat end when closed. The risk of developing HK was highly influenced by the duration of milking and initial teat-end HK score.

For the full paper click on this link.

http://www.uwex.edu/uwmril/pdf/MilkMachine/MilkMachine/Liners/08%203798%20ASABE%20Zucali%20Liner%20Compression%20and%20HK.pdf

This paper describes a study to examine the congestion of teat tissues produced by milking.  Four different milking treatments were applied to six cows at the pm milking. Ultrasonic imaging was used to measure teat wall thickness before milking, immediately after milking and 1, 2, and 4 hours after milking. Ultrasound measurement quantified changes in teat wall thickness during milking as well as the recovery rate of teat tissues after milking. The combination of milking vacuum level and b-phase duration had an effect on the degree of teat wall thickness after milking. An increase of about 25% was produced at a milking vacuum level of 44 kPa and B phase of 322 ms and an increase of about 35% at milking vacuum levels of 47 and 50 kPa and B phase of 500 ms or more. It appeared as if liner compression had an influence on the recovery rate of teat tissues. However, further experimentation is required to further investigate this effect.

Click on this link for the full paper.

http://www.uwex.edu/uwmril/pdf/MilkMachine/MilkMachine/Liners/08%203805%20ASABE%20Spanu%20Ultrasonic%20Assessement%20of%20teat%20tissue%20congestion.pdf

This paper presents a new method was developed to quantify bacteria on bovine teats prior to milking. Previous methods using swabs to recover bacteria from teat skin have shown a high degree of variability in the amount of bacteria recovered depending on the amount of pressure applied to the teat/swab interface, the variability in the surface area of the teat swabbed, and the choice of the area to swab as the entire teat surface cannot be practically swabbed. This new method uses a single towel moistened with water to recover soil and bacteria from all four teats of each individual cow. Bacteria are then recovered from the towel and suspended in a sterile water solution. This solution is then cultured and tested using direct microscopic methods. Data are presented from several case studies which were designed to detect differences between different bedding management strategies on the bacteria population on the teats of cows as they entered the milking parlor as well as to detect the efficacy of pre milking teat sanitation in both conventional and automatic (robotic) milking facilities.

Click on this link for the full Paper.

http://www.uwex.edu/uwmril/pdf/MilkMachine/MilkMachine/PerformanceTesting/083796%20ASABE%20Bade%20Method%20for%20Assessing%20Udder%20Hygiene.pdf

These are the slides from the presentaion on evaluating milking performance in WIsconsin that was part of the January 2008 Dairy Team Road Show.  They are a supplement to the comanion paper.