Nowadays, if manual milking is still a viable practice on small dairy farms, most large ones normally go for milking machines for their large-scale operations. Effectively, the milking machine technology is now one of the most present factors in modern day farming, ensuring an optimization of the production. However, being dependent on the milking machines, it is essential for dairy farmers to identify the problems and apply the appropriate repairs and maintenance as soon as possible.

Milking Machine Maintenance, Guidelines to Follow

Indeed, out of all the equipment of a dairy farm, the milking machine is used the most and is thus most prone to damages. Neglecting routine check-up and maintenance can thus lead to damages that will affect the health of the animals and the quality of the milk. This can however be avoided by following certain guidelines.

While some dairy farms workers can perform the maintenance work by themselves, they aren’t always trained to identify all the problems. It is thus recommended to contact experts for regular check-ups of the milking machine. These experts can be relatively easy to find, with suppliers like Macdougalls offering the services of highly qualified experts.

Secondly, it is also recommended to evaluate when the milking machine will require a maintenance according to how long it has been in use. Most large farms have a routine maintenance after every 500 to 1500 hours, although this milestone can be overlooked if problems have been identified.

Dairy farmers should also replace specific parts of the machines as suggested by the supplier. Rubberware for example is also known to deteriorate faster than any other part of a milking machine and should thus be repaired according to guidelines. Unfortunately, farmers tend to wait for signs of deterioration before applying the replacements. What they need to know is that the initial deterioration are nearly impossible to detect, and can cause issues like pitting which retains bacteria and leads to teat infections on the animals. Taking such risks to save on small expenses like rubberware replacements could turn out to be quite costly.

These are but a few of the guidelines that need to be followed for a proper milk harvest and storage. Ignoring any of the above could however lead to quality and hygiene issues which will not only affect the sales of the farm, but also its reputation. Thus, only hire trained staff, and ensure that all instructions all followed to the letter.