The milking process involves as much as 85% of the workforce on most dairy farms. When you consider that milk is a dairy’s top revenue source, milking technicians have a huge impact on the operation’s profitability. If parlor performance lags or procedures drift, the entire enterprise may be at risk.
It takes a tremendous amount of time and effort to hire and retain a good milking crew. With often high turnover, training is continual. How can dairy managers evaluate the performance of these valued employees in a way that allows for positive reinforcement and constructive coaching for improvement?
Milking parlor monitoring technology is a tool that can help you set objective key performance indicators (KPIs) to manage your milking team. By providing objective, non-emotional measurements of parlor performance, these reports can help you evaluate the consistency and productivity of your team and set benchmarks for improvement.
Proper use of parlor KPIs can help reward positive performance and motivate employees to take ownership in their essential roles. Armed with reliable parlor data, you can do a better job of people and parlor management to ensure optimal milk harvesting and an efficient and comfortable milking experience for your cows.
Criteria for milk monitoring success
Keep in mind two criteria needed to ensure the success of a milk monitoring system:
- Trustworthy identification of individual cows. Look for identification accuracy approaching 99%. Some technologies also include individual stall identification.
- Reliable milk weight measurements.
Using technology that meets these criteria, producers can evaluate the milk yield of each cow and KPIs associated with the milk harvesting process, then use that data to make actionable improvements to increase efficiency and improve profitability.
One important piece of advice: Set aside a specific time to evaluate parlor performance metrics. It may not be practical to look at reports daily or after every shift. Instead, take time each week to review milking metrics and look for trends in milking parlor performance. Make it a weekly routine to evaluate successes, identify weak areas that require attention, communicate results to your team and make an action plan for improvement.
Having said that, effective milk monitoring technology should alert the manager in real time to any parlor issues and maintenance needs that require urgent attention. In that case, be prepared to take immediate action rather than waiting for your weekly evaluation session.
Top six parlor KPIs
With so much data at your fingertips, what are the best milk monitoring reports to focus on? Below are six key reports recommended for weekly evaluation. These provide the most useful and insightful metrics to help you evaluate the performance of cows in the milking parlor and improve management of the parlor and milking crew.
Your monitoring technology representative or technical support team can help you find data to generate these reports or set up customized reports to fit your needs.
- Kickoffs or falloffs. This report provides insights into cows’ milking experiences. The goal is to minimize the number of milking units that either fall off or are kicked off by the cow before milking is completed. Whether reported as a ratio or raw number, this KPI can help you spot differences between shifts or issues with the milking equipment. A high percentage of kickoffs or falloffs may signal that a management change is necessary, such as changing inflations, adjusting the takeoff threshold or adjusting the system vacuum.
- Cows milked in manual mode. Strive to keep this number or percentage as low as possible – at or under 2%. Rates above 2% may mean that milkers distrust the automatic takeoffs and are concerned cows aren’t completely milked out. They may not understand that some residual milk is normal and acceptable after unit removal. In that case, additional training is needed. High use of manual mode may be due to a maintenance issue with the automatic takeoffs. Or it may indicate an issue with bimodal letdown caused by improper milking prep procedures. Use this KPI to train workers on the importance of proper prep to achieve full milk letdown. Set protocols for proper use of manual mode.
- Reattachments. Excessive reattachments could be caused by a bad pulsator or a split liner that causes a quarter to not milk out correctly. Note whether more reattachments are occurring in a particular stall or whether a certain shift of workers seems to be reattaching units more frequently. Unnecessary reattachments can negatively impact milk quality by causing teat-end damage that exposes more surface area to potential bacterial contamination.
- Efficiency per line of cows. This report is tailored specifically for herringbone, parallel or side parlors. It can help you spot any slowdowns or inefficiencies in milk harvest. For example, the report might show one line of cows milking in 10 to 12 minutes and another line taking 15 to 18 minutes to milk. In some cases, there may be an explanation for the slowdown, such as a shift change or break. Or there may be a need to address team training or parlor maintenance.
- Milk flow rate after attachment. This report provides a snapshot of milk prep effectiveness. With proper preparation to stimulate oxytocin release, cows should reach peak milk flow between 60 and 90 seconds after attachment. If the cow does not reach the target flow rate, it may indicate bimodal letdown. With proper pre-milking procedures, fewer than 10% of individual cows should experience bimodal letdown. Managers can zero in to see if this issue occurs in a certain stall, during a certain milking shift or across the entire herd.
- Milk flow rate at unit removal. This report can help spot premature takeoffs due to slower-milking cows. In general, units are being removed too early if the cow is producing more than 3 pounds per minute of milk flow at removal. Strive to keep premature takeoffs under 5%. Grouping cows by milking speed can align automatic takeoffs more optimally to maximize parlor efficiency. For dairies with rotary parlors, the parlor can spin at a different rate to accommodate slower-milking cows.
There is almost no limit to the insights that can come from a good milk monitoring system. Reports can be customized to reveal specific KPIs to fit your operation. See Table 1 for examples of KPIs for optimal milking parlor performance, along with targets.
It may be helpful to post reports in the parlor or break room, highlighting results by shift. You may find that a little friendly competition may motivate your teams to improve performance and adhere more closely to parlor protocols.
Getting started
Your monitoring technology supplier can assist you in generating the reports you need to make improvements in parlor performance. If you are new to milk monitoring technology, pick a few simple and easy-to-understand parlor KPIs to focus on initially. Establish benchmarks and train your employees on factors that affect these metrics and how to improve them.
