Use and Interpretation of Milk Flow Curves in Measuring Variations in the Response of Cows to Machine Milking

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Abstract
A continuous-fed kymograph was used to obtain graphic measurements of rate of milk flow during machine milking. Various numerical measures taken from the milk flow curves were highly repeatable not only from day-to-day but week-to-week over a 6 wk. period, and from lactation-to-lactation when similiar stages of lactation were compared. The % of the milk yield obtained during the first 2 min. of milking is highly reliable as an objective measure of the time required to milk a cow, having a correlation of 0.922 with the total machine time.