Automatic teat disinfection more accurate than manual

Automatic teat disinfection spraying gives better coverage compared with manual ones, new research has found.

A study was carried out on a 60-point rotary parlour milking 550 cows. Six automatic Locate and Spray systems were fitted and six duration regimes were evaluated.

Results showed the teat barrel coverage and teat end coverage was higher when compared with manual post-teat spraying of 1,500 cows.

Manual results found only 3.77 teat ends were hit out of four and it only achieved 50% barrel coverage.

This compared with 3.84 and 61.83 respectively, for the 0.5sec automatic spray duration – the duration, which yielded the poorest result, yet still higher than the best manual coverage.

The best coverage was the two automatic sprays lasting 0.5sec each. Teat hit rate was four and barrel coverage increased to 88.91%.

Revealing the results at the British Mastitis conference, Worcester, Richard May conceded this was partly offset by higher chemical consumption.

While manual spraying averaged 15.3ml, automatic ranged from 18.4-60.8ml.