it gives an indication that facilities 

 vary and that practices are not identi- 

 cal. 



What Are Essential Practices? 



It seemed desirable to determine 

 the essential practices in taking care 

 of equipment and to formulate at 

 least one schedule that would simpli- 

 fy these practices. This was done 

 with the aid of a dairy bacteriologist 

 in the Dairy Department. 



Recent improvements in construc- 

 tion of teat cups and the development 

 of special detergents have aided in 

 simplifying the essential practices. 

 The schedules formulated were based 

 on the use of modern equipment and 

 detergents. 



Included under equipment were the 

 assembling of equipment before each 

 milking and carrying to the area in 

 the barn where milking is to begin, 

 as well as the transporting of equip- 

 ment back to the milk house after 

 milking and rinsing with cold water. 



Milking equipment can be cleaned 

 and maintained with less effort if the 

 milk house is well designed and facil- 

 ities conveniently located. One sat- 

 isfactory arrangement follows. A 

 sink and equipment shelves are lo- 

 cated on one side: the sink in the 

 middle, the shelf for milking machines 

 on the left, and the shelf for milk 

 pails and strainers on the right. Spe- 

 cial hooks for hanging up fully as- 

 sembled milker heads are spaced 

 above the milking machine equipment 

 shelf so that milking machine parts 

 are grouped in one area. Two air 

 vacuum outlets are available on the 

 adjoining end wall about three feet 

 from the milker equipment shelves. A 

 switch for the milking machine mo- 

 tor is located near the vacuum outlets. 



On the other side are located the 

 milk cooler tanks and in one corner 

 are stored the supply of empty 10- 

 gallon shipping cans. This leaves 

 the center of the milk room available 



for activities such as preparation and 

 arrangement of shipping cans previ- 

 ous to milking, transferring milk cans 

 from cooler to truck, and rinsing 

 equipment. 



A good flow of hot and cold water 

 is important in reducing the amount 

 of time needed. The pipes and valves 

 should not be less than % inch. Spe- 

 cial arrangements should be made to 

 step up the flow wherever the oper- 

 ator has to wait for rinsing water. 

 In addition, hot and cold water out- 

 lets with short hose attached should 

 be located near the vacuum outlet. 

 These will permit the operator to fill 

 pails while doing other activities in 

 the milk house. 



Inventory of Equipment 



Where one man is operating two 

 single units, the following equipment 

 must be cared for. If two men are 

 operating two single units each, the 

 number of utensils would be doubled 

 except that the two strainers are usu- 

 ally adequate, if they are extra size. 

 Some operators use an extra milker 

 pail to advantage. In this case, how- 

 ever, the extra milker pail would be 

 substituted for one of the ordinary 

 milk pails. This is the equipment 

 needed for one man operating two 

 single units: 



2 single milking machine units 



2 large strainers 



3 milk pails 



1 pail for hot water solution 



1 strip cup 



2 large cloths 



In addition, the sink, equipment 

 shelves, and milk house floor must be 

 kept clean. 



Suggested Procedure 



The procedures followed in the sug- 

 gested schedule in preparation of 

 equipment before milking and in rins- 

 ing in clear water immediately after 

 milking are identical for the morning 



18 



