MILKING MACHINES

Waikato Independent, Volume XLIX, Issue 1185, 26 September 1945, Page 4

MILKING MACHINES

FARMER'S EXPERIMENTS * BENEFITS PASSED ON TO PRODUCERS For a period of years Mr F. E. /Harris, of Walton, has conducted exhaustive experiments with milking machines, his object being to complete milking more efficiently and expeditiously, and thereby lessen farmers' lengthy periods in cowsheds. That he has'Succeeded to a very large extent is now common knowledge. He has proved to the satisfaction of many farmers that after slight alterations to machines cows not only milk quicker, but that stripping is unnecessary. In conjunction-with the D.P.A., of which he is a member, and which arranges meetings, Mr Harris, by means of interesting lectures, has passed On ther knowledge so gained to the distinct benefit of farmers from Tirau in the- south to Dargaville lii ' the.north. The lectures are open to all farmers '. in their respective areas, and already large numbers of machines have been altered to conform to Mr Harris' ideas. He contends that -some milking : machines have deteriorated since first produced 45 years ago, and were it not 'for'the many extra gadgets attached farmers would be losing still more i cpWs than; at present. When it was • Considered that any number up to 33 r per eent. of herds went out every year, • and that the dairy farmer was responsible tor one-third of the meat which was exported from New Zealand, it • '•; was'high time something was done to counteract such a terrific loss. A good machine was a herd stabiliser. Anyfarmer could take a herd and milk it with a .good machine, and would find that the herd would not vary to any great extent. To-day the practice seemed to be to get behind the inflation and punch it with big port pulsators and fifteen pounds of vacuum, which sooner or later would riuni the cows. When air was taken through the claws into the machine it expanded outwards and filled the pipe. "Pulsators pulled: air through the airline into the machine,,and 95 per cent, of machines to-day had two pipes into

the releaser when only one was needed It required a two horse-power motor to empty air out of 80 feet of pipe in a milking plant, and very frequently the pump ran hot, which showed the terrific back pressure; it also made the milk in the releaser churn. Although the farmer was diffident in the matter of altering his plant, it was necessary to have two separate lines all the way, coming from the top of the releaser to the pump, provided the air could be taken into the machino and taken out faster than it went in. Farmers would then overcome a lot of the. quarter trouble in the herds.

In many machines farmers had to pull off the cups before the cows were finished to save quarter trouble. However, Mr Harris advised that if the back pressure were taken, out by the pump the cups could be left on until the cows were finished without harming them. With the double lead into the pump and a reasonable vacuum the cups would not fall off, but would milk cows dry with no stripping required. Many dairy industry experts stated there was nothing to stop doubling up, which was the right way to milk cows. One and threequarter inch pipe would carry ten machines. When a covf walked into a shed where doubling up was used she would let down hor milk right away. In fact,, in the flush of the season, if the cups were not put 'on she would start to milk on the concrete..

If a farmer took out the 'crosses, thereby eliminating bottlenecks, and replaced them with bends he would streamline his plant. To-day most machines had a lot of crosses which Mr Harris considered definitely detrimental to the plant's efficiency. Upon examination of the vacuum tank it would be seen that there were two distinct marks on the baffle plate opposite the air pipes,* which proved it to be an obstruction in getting air into the plant quickly. Some machines had one inch pipes from the vacuum tank to the pump. A second hole in a vacuum pump, a li inch pipe from the releaser, and the elimination of" all crosses, would make the machine' milk more "speedily.

In doubling up a six-cow' plant a If inch pipe was needed, but most machines to-day, no matter what sizo or number of cups, had only 1J inch pipe into the pump. In doubling up the cups, the better the pulsators would work.