Are your liners right for your herd? Find out with these 10 questions! – Part 1

Are you sure you are using the right liner for your milking system and herd’s needs? These ten aspects, outlined by our experts, will help you understand it!

Farm efficiency and high milking performance are strictly intertwined with the choice of high-quality equipment, in line with the cows’ physical features, as well as type of milking system, and machine settings. Thus, how is it possible to understand if your liners are the right ones for your cows? Our milking expert Ghislain Coppejans pointed out 10 questions that can help farmers evaluate the most appropriate liners to their herd and equipment, with the final goal of milking faster, more completely, while ensuring that teat condition remains healthy.

 Factors affecting liner selection

As mentioned above, selecting equipment including liners, requires an analysis of the interaction between several factors that are described below. If these are not balanced, the milking process will be harmful for the animals, with severe repercussions on performance and ultimately profitability.

• Cow features. Udder and teat shape, as well as dimensions, are primary aspects to consider when choosing liners.
• The type of system, either high or low line, might influence the effect of vacuum on teats and implies different liner barrel shapes.
• Machine settings, such as vacuum level or pulsation phases are also related to the liner type and thus can compromise teat condition if not correctly managed.

In this first episode, we will discover 5 of the 10 crucial questions for the evaluation, which are linked to the system set-up and the first part of the milking process. Make sure not to miss the remaining ones in the next episode, to gather all the material needed for an overview as complete and effective as possible.

1. Let’s begin with the type of milking system: how is the cluster positioning? Is your milking point equipped with a tube support or a service arm? What claw and liner type are you using?

The key to cow comfort is that the liner is mounted in the appropriate shell, with the right dimensions and weights, fitting the claw properly. Therefore, it is important to shed light on the milking system and claw type, being aware of all their features, as the choice of liner should depend on them:

• High line milking systems create higher vacuum drop at peak flow and require a tapered liner barrel which has a stronger grip at the teat.
• Parallel barrel liners fit better on low line systems with less vacuum drop.

2. How easily do cows enter the milking parlor?

When cows do not like entering the milking parlor, the throughput will be lower and the consequent need for farmers to chase the animals will create more stress.Some of the reasons behind this behavior are related to the parlor environment, such as darkness, humidity, bad aeration, and uncomfortable circumstances like small standing places. Though, an aggressive and uncomfortable milking process might also represent an important factor. More precisely, inappropriate liners negatively affect the milking process and irritate the cows, which in turn become reluctant while entering the parlor.

3. How do cows behave when touching the teats during the preparation? Do they kick?

Cows that become nervous when touching the teats suffer from hypersensitivity, caused by excessive force exerted on them during milking. This creates teat congestion, which makes them turn red and blue, and become painful.

4. How is the teat condition, SCC, and mastitis rate?

Having a clear overview of the actual udder health situation is another crucial point. Compression forces are responsible for bad teat end condition (Hyperkeratosis), which increases the risk of new infection, such as:

• Excessive teat wall swelling and discoloration, caused by very wide bore liners and high vacuum levels.
• Ring marks at the teat base, due to inappropriate liner orifice dimensions.

How can these threats be avoided? By choosing a more adequate liner type for cows’ physical needs, such as Impulse liners with Triangular Liner Compression (TLC) technology. Its low-compression design helps reduce the over pressure at the teat, allowing to maintain a perfect condition with better resistance against new infections.

5. What is the air leakage while attaching: none, medium, too much?

Too much air intake while attaching creates vacuum impacts, stress, and increases the risk of new infection. Therefore, an important move to make is checking if the liner vacuum shut-off section is adapted to the claw nipple.

These were the first 5 questions to consider when evaluating if the liners you are using are the right ones! But remember, you are only halfway through the analysis, as the 5 other missing questions will be presented in the next Blog episode. We are sure you don’t want to miss this chance to maximize your cow comfort and milking efficiency, therefore make sure not to miss it!

MI thank Ghislain Coppejans for his contribution.