Variations in the Time Required to Milk Cows

Time required to milk and rate of milk flow are largely characteristics of individual cows, as differences among cows of the same breed account for 55.7 and 52.2% of the total variances of the two traits, respectively. An average of 5.19 nfinutes elapsed from attaching the last teat cup until all teat cups were renmved; 2.18 kg of milk was removed in the first minute and 4.36 kg in the first two nfinutes, while the average for the maximum amount of milk removed in one minute was 2.59 kg. Maximum rate increased .202 .024 kg and time increased .270 ---+ .035 minutes for each increase of 1 kg in milk yield per milking. Time required to milk can be predicted from the first powers of yield of milk per milking and measures of rate of' flow with a high degree of accuracy; the multiple correlations ranged from 0.86 to 0.90. Maximum rate of flow, yield in the first minute, and yield in the first two minutes are all adequate measures of rate of flow. Milking time increased 0.51 minute for each increase of one kilogram in yield of milk per milking independent of maximum rate and decreased 1.22 minutes for each increase of one kilogram in maximum rate of flow indepeudent of yield per milking.