Effects of short period frequent milking on milk yield and udder health in Turkish Saanen goats

Abstract

The major purpose of this study was to investigate whether increasing milking frequency for a short period (21 days) increases milk yield and milk components and improves udder health throughout lactation in Turkish Saanen goats. Two groups were formed (control, n = 14, treatment, n = 14); balanced by parity, bodyweight and birth type to make them homogenous. Feeding and management practices were the same for both groups. The treatment group was milked four times a day (4×) for 21 days after weaning whereas the control group was milked twice a day (2×). All the animals were milked twice daily thereafter. The pyronin methyl green stain method was used to estimate the somatic cell count (SCC), which is an indication of udder health. This method provided a count that excluded RNA and background noise while including cells with DNA. Repeated measures analyses indicated that overall differences between the 2× and 4× groups were significant for the morning, evening and total test day milk yields, in that values for the 4× group were increased 14.7, 8.8 and 12.1%, respectively. Differences between the groups for SCC were not significant. The results of this study indicate that increasing milking frequency to 4×, even for a short time (21 days), increases overall milk yield throughout lactation in dairy goats. © 2008 The Authors; Journal compilation © 2008 Japanese Society of Animal Science.