The end of the year is the time to summarize the results. Dairy farmers who get their first Cattle Care report will see it reveals several immediate opportunities for improvement. Farmers appreciate seeing how the system can provide immediate ROI, but they can become easily frustrated trying to decide where to begin making improvements based on the audit results. “I already have enough work to do every day. Why should I add more tasks to my to-do list?” These questions are easily answered by breaking down big tasks into several small tasks. By making progress step by step, one issue at a time ..read more

For those who is ready to delve deeper into the topic and learn more about making your dairy farm even more successful, we prepeared a small bonus. Lets discover some more aspects of effective dairy farm management and elevate your business to new heights with our tips and recommendations. Missed Milk Stripping, Exploring the issues encountered on dairy farms, let's shine a light on the issue of "Missed Milk Stripping," constituting 1.68% of all reported issues. On average, this occurs with eight cows per case, translating to one case every three hours of milking. It's noteworthy that, similar ..read more

On the eve of the Christmas holidays, we are completing our top 10 mistakes on farms. "Employees out of position," constituts 2.16% of all reported issues, and ranking as the last in our top 10 issues on dairy farms. This issue occurs when there is no worker in the milking area for more than 1 minute. On average, there is no employee present for 5 minutes during a 2-hour milking session. While breaks are necessary, we should have a clear system in place for staff rotation in the milking area. This ensures that there is always someone monitoring the milking equipment in case any issues arise ..read more

In our ongoing exploration of common issues on dairy farms, let's focus on the issue of "Missed Postdip", which accounts for 3.67% of all reported issues. This problem is more frequently identified on parallel farms, occurring an average of 14 times per hour, equating to one issue per hour. It's important to note that the actual situation may vary, as some farms have a well-established postdip procedure, while on others, workers consistently forget to perform postdip for the last cows during milking sessions. When a cow is not postdipped after the machine is removed, it poses a potential thre ..read more

Continuing our series of articles about the most common issues on a dairy farm, let's talk about an issue known as "Misuse of water hose" which ranks eighth on the list. However, it accounts for 5.19% of all issues that occur during cow milking. On average, there's one case and one cow per hour. This issue is more frequently observed on rotary farms and less so on parallel ones. If a cow is in a specific milking stage (before and after machine attachment, before post-dipping), the floor should not be washed underneath her because it can introduce infection into the milk or exposed udder. Ther ..read more

Continuing the discussion on the most common issues on a dairy farm, let's talk about the "Phone and Resting" issue. With a frequency of occurrence of 5.50% on dairy farms, it's essential to understand why this is so crucial. Discipline in the milking parlor is vital, and adhering to timing is critical. Conversations among coworkers can be beneficial up to a point, but they become problematic when they disrupt the milking routines. Conversations on a dairy farm can have not only a negative impact on productivity but also on the correct execution of procedures and ensuring the safety of animal ..read more

Continuing our discussion of the most common issues during cow milking, let's address the sixth-ranked problem: "No reattach," accounting for 6.8% of all issues. This issue predominantly occurs in parallel milking systems. When does this issue arise? If the milking unit stays on the cow for less than 2 minutes, then disconnects, and the worker doesn't reattach it. Consequently, every working hour sees at least one cow leaving the milking without being fully milked. Why does this occur? Employees might not notice the detachment of the milking unit due to being engaged in other tasks (useful o ..read more

We continue the section on the most common issues during cow milking. In fifth place among all issues is “Towel Accidents.” It occurs with a frequency of 8.74% among all mistakes made on farms, which means an average of 2 issues per hour and about 5 towels used per hour. On rotary parlors, this issue occurs less frequently: 1.3 issues per hour with 2.2 towels used. The more towels workers use, the more often the “Towel Accidents” issue happens. Therefore, as soon as we start working with a client and notice an increase in the “One towel for several cows” issue, we also observe a rise in the n ..read more

Continuing our series of articles on the most common issues during cow milking, let's talk about the issue of “Wrong Order”, which ranks fourth in terms of prevalence. Its occurrence rate is 10.68%, which averages to 2 issues per hour and approximately 7 cows per hour. Let's take a closer look at what exactly is considered a "Wrong Order" issue. The most frequent type of this issue is a violation of the order of cow preparation. The proper activation of the milk let-down reflex should take 60-90 seconds from the first touch to the udder. Similarly, predip solutions usually require about 30 se ..read more

Cattle Care offers its customers a free product demo because seeing it is better than hearing about it a hundred times! In 2022, our system analyzed hundreds of hours of video from various milking parlors, and we want to share some statistics with you. The most common issue observed during demos was the use of one towel for several cows. On average, for parallel milking parlors, this issue occurred at a frequency of 36.7 cases per demo. In practice, this means that on average, 16 cows are wiped with used towels per hour of work in the milking parlor. (on some farms, up to 17% of cows are affe ..read more