1,721,021 research outputs found
Recenti sviluppi tecnologici dei sistemi che utilizzano la conducibilità elettrica del latte per il monitoraggio dello stato di salute delle capre=Recent technological developments of systems that use the electrical conductivity of milk to monitor the health status of goats
No full textIn ruminants, infections by pathogenic microorganisms can be the origin of mastitis and they can affect both yields and quality of milk. The health status of mammary glands can be investigated through standardized laboratory analyses such as bacteriological analyses and the somatic cells count. These analyses need their relative times to be performed. For this reason, researchers have studied new markers and indexes able to detect, early and directly at the farm, the presence of udder pathologies with a specific focus on sub-clinical cases. In dairy cows, the electrical conductivity of milk has been the most studied parameter. In dairy goats, only recently the same trend has been observed although similar advantages, in terms of udder health, could be reached when the monitoring of the herd is performed. In this review, we present a detailed description of which is the current knowledge of this parameter and which is its detection characteristic when applied to milk from dairy goats in order to identify mastitis cases. The results of this review show that significant correlations between the mean values of electrical conductivity and the health status of mammary glands have been reported by many authors. Furthermore, different algorithms based on univariate or multivariate models have been tested with useful sensitivities and specificities. Therefore, this parameter can be considered as a tool to improve the monitoring of the mammary health status, also for dairy goats. However, the knowledge of the relationship between this parameter and the presence of mammary gland' pathologies should be improved. Furthermore, technological aspects related to the milking systems should be taken into account. In fact new sensors, able to measure this data on-line and for single gland, are necessary if the target is to use this technology in milking machines with performances comparable with those obtained with dairy cows
Effect of automatic cluster removal on parlor performance and unit cost of milking in dairy goats
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Development and testing of a “free-flow” conductimetric milk meter
No full textAccurate milk yield measurement is important to maintain production efficiency and improve farm management: yield data enable to implement and evaluate feed rations for individual cows or groups, calculate actual lactation curves and identify potential health problems proactively. Nowadays, many electronic milk metering devices, based on different methods of measurement, are available on the market. Vacuum drop across the meter, accuracy over a wide range of flow rates and farm conditions (e.g. foaming of milk) are the key problems of currently available electronic milk meters.
Aim of this project was the development of a free-flow milk meter, able to work with different flow rates and different combination of air-milk flows, with a measuring chamber essentially made by a portion of linear pipe, horizontally disposed and with no mechanical movement parts, to minimize the interferences with the milk flow and on the electric conductivity (EC), to calculate the milk yield, in order to obtain a low-cost device. A prototype was built up and laboratory and farm tests were carried out during 2004 and 2005, in order to evaluate the accuracy and reproducibility of the new device.
Laboratory and farm tests were carried out following the guidelines of the International Committee for Animal Recording ICAR). Laboratory tests showed a bias of 1.4% and a standard deviation of 5.0%, while farm tests showed a bias of −4.5% and a standard deviation of 12.7%
Effect of robotic and conventional milking on milk yield and milk composition of primiparous cows
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