Effects of the working vacuum level on mechanical milking of buffalo.

Mechanized milking has become widely used for buffaloes in Italy in recent years, thus improving the management and the productivity of farms. The apparent similarities between buffalo and cattle have often resulted in applying the same milking systems and techniques currently used for dairy cows. Considering the effect of mechanical milking on animal health, productivity, and welfare in intensive livestock farming, this study compares the effects of milking at low vacuum (36 kPa) and medium vacuum (42 kPa) on milk emission characteristics and milking system performance. Individual milk flow curves were registered to analyze milk yield, average flow rate, and milking time, and milking operations were recorded to evaluate the system performances. When using 36 kPa vacuum, a significant increase in milking time and in the lag time before milk ejection occurred, as well as a decrease in average flow rate and residual milk. However, the vacuum level did not influence both milk yield and milk ejection time. As a consequence of decreasing the vacuum level to 36 kPa, the milking system throughput was decreased at most by 5 buffalo/h.