Orari Farmer's Fast Milking Recalled

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28920, 13 June 1959, Page 8

Orari Farmer's Fast Milking Recalled

A farmer in one of New Zealand's main dairying districts, the Waikato, was interested recently to see a film about milking in , which a farmer from mere Canterbury had an honoured place because of his skill in handling cows. This incident has recalled the r( fast milking performances of aj b( South Canterbury farmer, Mr A. ] O] D. Muff, of Orari, who received i world-wide publicity after Pro- ;n--fessor W. E. Petersen, a world | authority on milking technique. u milk secretion and dairy cow a > psychology had described the New o! Zealander as the fastest milker a j he had seen when he visited New w Zealand in 1948. a] Unbeknown to Mr Muff, Pro- n fessor Petersen put the watch on w the South Canterbury farmer. It ir had showed that he had milked Sl 64 cows in 61 minutes, Mr Muff said recently when asked about his performances. I But for the last 10 years Mr h iMuff has been out of the milking a , ished and others have been milk- Ci ' ing his cows. Up till two years [ago his property was still a com- \ plete dairy farm, but recently he q. ihas been converting to mixed j, farming and his herd, which once •numbered from 90 to 100. is now, ! n | about 50 strong. Recalling his fast milking •in a walk-through type of bale, jf ( Mr Muff said that it was an every- j day occurrence and no doubt he ■’ n had often done better than the ’ n performance clocked by the pro-pj fessor. Still he expected that by n now his performances would have v been bettered with the improved 31 milking facilities available. n The reason for his fast milking? s j Mr Muff said it was involved in the rather difficult-to-define term, ’•cowmanship.” in which training t] and handling of the cows were n important factors. It was some- p thing that had to be in a man. said Mr Muff. ■ Shortly after Professor Peter-, : sen's visit, Mr A. H. Ward, now ( i general manager of the Dairy ! Board, took shots on Mr Muff*s ! farm for a film called “Milking I Time.” < One of the fastest sheds in the country today is at Edge- I cumbe in the Bay of Plenty, ( .

according to Mr A. T. G. McArthur, technical officer of the New Zealand Dairy Board. Mr Gordon Walker, who sharemilks by himself, milks 99 cows in an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half.

But, says Mr McArthur, “in . recent years there has probably, been far too much emphasis put • on chasing cows faster and faster i through more and more elaborate; ! milking sheds. About 20 years ago : ■it was found that hand stripping 1 was unnecessary and this was 1 abandoned by the large majority : of farmers. Quite frequently this [ also meant that cows were milked without leg ropes or back chains ' and it also led to the development of the herring-bone shed in which cows angle park themselves in two races either side of a sunken milker’s alley. This is a stoopless shed especially designed for no-hand-stripping. ‘‘Unfortunately some people have defined milking efficiency as the number of cows that a man can milk in an hour. To a point it is true that fast milking and good cowmanship go together because cows that like being milked bale themselves up (without having. to be pushed) and let their ! milk down easily. : “However, research at RuaI kura has shown that cows washed [for 30 seconds before- putting on [the cups gave 20 to 30 per cent, [more butterfat than cows that had Ino such stimulation. Obviously [time spent in preparing cows for 'milking is time profitably in- ! vested. It is impossible to spend 30 seconds washing each cow if a man is trying to handle more than six sets of cups. Thus good cowmanship and fast milking can go together for a certain distance but they part company when fast milking leads to slapdash milking procedure.”