Effective teat spray system
Canterbury based dairy tech firm Onfarm Solutions says it has developed an effective, consistent automated tear spraying system for herringbone dairy sheds.
Onfarm Solutions’ Teatwand sprayer now has the ‘Exact Air’, reports managing director Gary Arnott.
The Teatwand Exact, with moving arm and twin nozzles, can now achieve excellent coverage of teats with less spray by means of an air injection system that better atomises the spray, giving better coverage at half the teat spray usage, Arnott says.
“Typically only 10ml per cow is used, translating to much lower teat spray usage and fast pay-off the investment”.
The company also markets the British-made Cotswold Dairy Cluster-Flush System for cleaning milking machines.
Arnott comments that a standard milking machine cleaning routine, though it cleans and sterilises milking plant after milking, allows clusters to become heavily contaminated with bacteria once milking starts; then these are passed to subsequent cows every time the clusters are re-attached.
This is the main source of mastitis in a milking herd, he says.
“This is especially important when colostrum cows are milked after the main herd. Heavily contaminated clusters are attached to new freshly calved cows that are largely free of mastitis bacteria, and can be a major cause of new infections in early lactation.
“One proven way of preventing this transfer is through the use of cluster flushing systems used more commonly overseas. Every cluster is automatically and vigorously flushed with high volumes of a disinfectant solution, removing any bacteria left in the clusters and liners.
“The disinfectant is then flushed out of the system with clean water before the next cow is milked so there is no risk of residues in the milk. These clusters can then be safely attached to the next cow with no risk of transferring mastitis bacteria.”
Developed in the UK, Cotswold automatic cluster flushing systems can be easily retrofitted to existing rotary and double-up herringbone dairies.
Onfarm Solutions also markets the Air Saniclease system.
Arnott says dirty teats are a marked problem during calving when cows come from the calving paddock covered in mud and bacteria and are at high risk of mastitis.
He says if teats are cleaned prior to milking during the colostrum period they are at lower risk of mastitis and this greatly improves teat skin condition.
“In addition, teat spray makes good contact with teat skin rather than dirt on teats and is more efficient at killing bacteria, further reducing the risk of mastitis. Wet farms, housing and feed-pad situations would also benefit from washing teats prior to milking.”
The Air Sanicleanse system, from Northern Dairy Equipment UK, is an air driven teat scrubber system with three rotating brushes that scrub the teat. The top two brushes counter-rotate to clean the external sides of the teat, while the third larger brush located centrally underneath the top two cleans the teat end and orifice.
