Milking nearly 1,100 cows in a Double-20 Herringbone parlor in Stangelville, Wisconsin, the milking team at Deer Run Dairy was able to reduce the milking time by 45 minutes each shift by making a few important changes to their milking routine. At Deer Run Dairy, two milkers prep twenty cows on each side, dividing them into four territories of five cows. Each milker is responsible for a total of ten cows on each side.

Initially, the milkers divided the parlor into two halves, the front and the back. The front milker prepped the first ten cows in the front of the parlor, and the back milker prepped the other ten cows in the back of the parlor.

Instead of just one of the milkers prepping, both of them start prepping their territories as soon as possible. This simple change has saved the milkers approximately 50 seconds on each side of cows… that’s 45 minutes over the course of the entire shift! (1100 cows / 20 cows per side = 55 sides of cows every milking…. 50 seconds x 55 sides= 45 minutes)

And since the second milker has to start prepping the sixth cow right away, he’s no longer able to stay in the back of the parlor to help bring cows in. Now, both milkers rely on the crowd gate and have also taught the majority of cows to walk into the parlor on their own.

With this new milking routine, both milkers can focus on getting started with their first territories while the cows walk into the parlor by themselves.  EL

	Tom Wall President of Dairy Interactive, LLC This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it