Air Flow Utilization in Milking Parlors

Air flow utilization was measured continuously for an hour during one milking in 31 commercial milking parlors. For analysis, recorded air flow was sampled at 5-s intervals for 30 rain, and for each parlor a histogram and cumulative distribution curve were plotted of air usage versus frequency of that air usage. Normal air usage was far less than maximum usage most of the time, but the analysis was based on air consumption which included 99% of the air flows sampled. Factors significantly affecting air usage were number of units and number of cows milked per hour. Based on sampled air flows, the required air flow rate was predicted by a regression equation; air usage (liters/second) = 2.35 + .32(number of milking units) + .093(number of cows milked per hour).