I thought I would run with a funny title tonight. Today and yesterday we have been working with rain, cold and wind, which has forced us out of the fields for the time being, but has allowed us time to do some much needed maintenance in the parlor. We have a great milk equipment service representative that visits our farm on a monthly basis to evaluate the equipment we depend on everyday to milk ours cows. His job is to do check ups on our cleaning systems, milking systems and our milking pump. Duane has been working with us for the past 6 years and we love him! This week was time for our milking inflations to be changed. Milk inflations or milk liners, are rubber liners that we use inside our milking units to gently sqeeze the teats of our cows, removing milk safely and comfortably. Check out this animation from our supplier to get a better idea how milking works! The purpose of the milking unit, claw or cluster is to stimulate the cow to let her milk down on her own, by making her relaxed and comfortable. The inflations gently squeeze the teats, while the vacuum pulls the milk away from the udder. The claw collects the milk and sends it to the milk line, and onto the bulk tank.
These rubber inflations are critical to making sure that we have healthy cows. These rubber inflations help to make sure that the ends of the teats of our cows are smooth and soft instead of dry and cracked. I hate dry skin and so do our cows, especially on their teats. If the inflations were working incorrectly, then we would have dry teats and as a result an increase in mastitis (infection of the udder). So...as you can see it is very important to change our rubbers on a regular basis! Inflations have a hard job. On our farm they last about 3 months, then it is time to install new ones. We are currently trying out some new inflations, to improve our cow health even more. At this time we are very excited about the results that we have! Cows love the new inflations! (we know because they didn't kick off a single unit since the install!)
Maintaining our equipment makes sure that we continue to have healthy cows and we produce a safe and nutrition product!
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I write this blog to share my passion for my cows and farming, please be respectful of that. I reserve the right to delete those comments which portray hate, call names, and are out right disrespectful. If you have an honest question, I will respond, to explain what we do on our farm, why we do it and how we do it. Please read with an open mind. My time to blog is short, as most of our days are spent caring for our beloved cows. Thank you!