Vol. 9, Special Issue 1 (2024)

Author(s): Naveen Kumar P, Vivek M Patil, Mahadevappa D Gouri, Guruprasad R, Madhusudhan HS and Shivaraj BM

Abstract: The present study was carried out to evaluate two milking methods—hand milking system (HMS) and community machine milking system (CMS) in the jurisdiction of the Kolar-Chikkaballapura Milk Union Ltd. In order to compare the efficiency of different milking systems, 3 villages having functioning community milking stations were randomly selected from each district, giving a total of 6 villages. In each village, 12 dairy farmers, 6 using hand milking system and 6 using community milking system, were randomly selected. The milking efficiency of 216 lactating cows belonging to the respondents was studied. The mean Milk Let-down Time (sec) was lower in HMS (61.14±0.699) as compared to CMS (86.29±1.008), primarily due to feeding mixture of concentrate during milking. CMS had lower Milking Time (min) (4.91±0.079), higher Milk Yield (kg) (6.82±0.116), higher Milk Flow Rate (kg/min) (1.39±0.011), possibly due to better milk ejection mechanism in milking machine, due to high vacuum pressure and regular pulsation rate, as compared to HMS (10.08±0.162, 6.15±0.110 and 0.61±0.008, respectively). Based on the findings of the present study, it can be concluded that Community Machine Milking System is an innovative solution to reduce labour requirement for milking at small dairy farms.