Dynamic tests during cow milking with different types of milk meters

This study is related to the POM - Measure 2 - Project B15 'Veterinary services computerization and technical support to livestock farms', in which innovative plants solutions has been introduced to recognize the single animal to measure the quantity of produced milk, to centralize and automate the management, in different cow and sheep and goats breedings in Puglia and Basilicata regions. The experimentation has foreseen dynamic tests, during the real milking of the cows, in an apulian plant in which different measurers of the quantity of milk have been installed: weigh jar, electronic weighing 'bascule' milk-meter, electronic proportional milk-meter. In a mechanical point of view, the vacuum level and the vacuum fluctuations in three different milk pipe sections have been valued: at short milk tube, downstream from the claw, prior to the milk meter. Comparing the results, authors deduced that the electronic milkmeters, like the electronic proportional milk meter, allows inferior vacuum degree variations and less mechanical solicitations in cow udder; such situation is particularly evident with higher milk flow. The study also underlines that the vacuum drops during milking can be very critical if not immediately compensate with a suitable planning and periodic revision of the plants.