66 Report of Department of Animal Industry of the 



time consumed by machine milking. 



An important economic question is the relative amounts of time 

 consumed by hand and by machine milking. In practice the time 

 required by either method varies greatly with the local conditions 

 and those at this Station can not be considered as quite normal 

 because there is here a distinct tendency to perform each opera- 

 tion more carefully and more slowly than under private condi- 

 tions. This difference is' especially marked in connection with 

 milking, because the milk from each cow at each milking is 

 weighed and recorded separately by the milker. From February 

 to September, 1911, 144 sets of records were made by the bam 

 foreman, Wm. Casey, of the time actually consumed by one man 

 in using two milking machines, at the afternoon milkings. 



Under the head, " Preparing the machine," these records show 

 the time occupied in taking the teat cups and tubes from the brine, 

 rinsing them, attaching them to the milking machines and filling 

 the air filter in the dome with cotton. The time consumed by 

 these operations ranged from three to seven minutes, averaging 

 3.36 minutes. It should be noted that this is the time for pre- 

 paring two milking machines each provided with two sets of teat 

 cups. The time required for one machine would be practically 

 one-half of this or 1.68 minutes. With the earlier type of 

 machine which required six to eight different sizes of teat cups 

 the time would be longer. Likewise the filling of all of the air 

 filters with cotton would have increased the time by about one- 

 half minute. The time consumed in starting the electric motor 

 and the vacuum pump, approximately one-half minute, should 

 also be included in that of the preparations for milking, instead 

 of in that of the milking process as in the present records. 



Under the head, " Time of milking," these records include the 

 time consumed in starting the electric motor and pump, taking 

 the two machines into the stable, attaching them, milking each 

 cow with the machine and stripping her by hand, weighing and 

 recording the total yield of each cow separately and pouring the 

 milk upon the cooler. With, all of these items to attend to, two 

 machines are as many as one man can satisfactorily manage. 



