Slow Milkers

zetorman

Have a lovely first calved heifer ....................BUT she is a very slow milker ...takes about 20 mins to milk her. I will have to get rid of her. Any suggestions please ???

Buford T. Justice XIX

I think you've answered the question there yourself.:)

One solution we used a long time ago was to drive the slow cow in last and keep her as the first cow in the next round so she gets twice the time to milk. But you would be wanting a fair surplus of labour to get that to work.

Is she actually slow to milk or is she lacking stimulation to milk? I have one here that is grand to milk as long as she is drawn as soon as she enters the parlour. It seems to take a long time for her to start milking rather than her being a slow milker as such.

yewtree

Had similar heifer last year very slow to milk was considering culling her but was calving earlier. Talk to a vet about it he said just take it off when row is finished and she will quicken up. Apparently slow mIlkers have a tigher end of teat canal so they are less likely to get mastitis.
Any way our 2nd calver had improved a lot. I just take it off when line has finished sometimes she isn't milked but no issues with scc or production based on milk recording

zetorman

Yewrtree thats great ....will give it a go and see what happens ?????Thanks

kowtow

yewtree wrote:

Had similar heifer last year very slow to milk was considering culling her but was calving earlier. Talk to a vet about it he said just take it off when row is finished and she will quicken up. Apparently slow mIlkers have a tigher end of teat canal so they are less likely to get mastitis. Any way our 2nd calver had improved a lot. I just take it off when line has finished sometimes she isn't milked but no issues with scc or production based on milk recording

You can also try a shot of oxytocin about 10 mins before milking to see if the problem is endocrinal... fear of the parlour for example or physical like a teat end.

Is one quarter noticeably slower than others... what is she like to strip?

yewtree

kowtow wrote: »

You can also try a shot of oxytocin about 10 mins before milking to see if the problem is endocrinal... fear of the parlour for example or physical like a teat end.

Is one quarter noticeably slower than others... what is she like to strip?

One quater particularly slow and very tough to strip.

Tried the oxytocin after calving as heifer didn't really help.

Green&Red

yewtree wrote: »

Had similar heifer last year very slow to milk was considering culling her but was calving earlier. Talk to a vet about it he said just take it off when row is finished and she will quicken up. Apparently slow mIlkers have a tigher end of teat canal so they are less likely to get mastitis.
Any way our 2nd calver had improved a lot. I just take it off when line has finished sometimes she isn't milked but no issues with scc or production based on milk recording

What he said, that was always our answer, they'll speed up soon enough hopefully

Mooooo

Oxytocin only if they wouldn't drop milk at all. Bad habit to get into with oxytocin as they may not drop it every time then. Go with yewtree and keep an eye on cell count. If only one quarter it could be blackspot or similar