The Effect of Increasing the Negative Pressure and Widening of the Vacuum-Release Ratio on the Rate of Removal of Milk from the Udder

Abstract

According to Brodell and Cooper (1), six million hours per day or about 10 per cent of the total labor necessary for all farm operations are required to milk the cows in the United States. Dahlberg (3), Zehner (8), and Carter (2) have reported significant decreases in the time required for mechanical milking by the adoption of certain management procedures. Matthews, Shaw and Weaver (5), Foot (4), Matthews, Swett and Graves (6) and others have studied the rates of milking by machine, but no work has been reported on the effect of varying negative pressures and changes in pulsation ratios upon the speed of milk withdrawal.