Big improvement in milking

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33541, 23 May 1974, Page 15

Big improvement in milking

(New Zealand Press Association)

HAMILTON.

A young Cambridge dairy farmer believes he has found a milking system that could boost dairy production throughout New Zealand at least 25 per cent.

He is Mr John Abra-, hamson,-one of two brothers: who have invented and pat-j ented a mechanical milk; stimulator and an automatic' milk cup remover. ! While herds around the’ 'country have dried off, Mr: Abrahamson is still milking' 70 of his cows, which are each averaging two gallons a day. He is “trying” to dry them off. STIMULATION He believes the reason his cows are milking so well is directly related to the mechanical stimulating and cup removal system. With his brother Walter, Mr Abrahamson perfected the mechanical stimulator and won a prize with it at the national field day two years ago. The cup remover also won a manufacturers' award last year, as well as awards at overseas shows. I “I’m convinced that the; lack of udder stimulation is I the limiting facto,r in pre-! I venting New Zealand from! 'achieving its potential milk 'production,” he said. “I also believe that the 'rotary shed system, together with the high labour cost, has put all emphasis on the speed of milking per labour unit and overlooked the most important phase of milking a cow — pre-milk-ung stimulation.”

He noted that Ruakura: scientists had proved the' worth of pre-milking stimulation which boosted milk production 30 per cent or about 801 b of butter a cow; i annually. This -could be iworth $7OOO for a farmer with a 150-cow herd. Mr Abrahamson said that in the normal course- of I milking, hand stimulation! would take up too much time and production would be lost through the cows having to stand too long on the concrete floor. The mechanical stimulator prepares the whole line of cows in 'the time it would take to do lone by hand. | By removing the cups as 'soon as the cow was milked, j the automatic cup remover I was an important step to'wards eliminating mastitis, the most expensive dairy ! disease in the world, he [claimed. “BEST TYPE” ; Mr Abrahamson believes . that the herringbone is the : most economical and '.efficient type of shed and it ■can accommodate all the i new mechanical aids. “I confidently predict that 'a well designed herringbone [shed will enable one man to imilk 100 to 120 cows per (labour hour with 14 to 16 I sets of teat cups,” he said,