Application of (German) Milk Ordinance in dairy farms with automatic milking systems - Discussion of special solutions for conflicts

Hygiene aspects of good manufacturing practice for milk production and stor ing are defined in detail in the Milk Ordinance and in the General Hygiene Coder for dairy farms (Commission Directive 89/362/EEC). Actually, milking with automatic milking systems (AMS) does often not fulfil these regulation s. As long as there does not exist an adequate technical solution, special regulations for the operating of AMS have to be elaborated. The aim is to f ind a general solution for provisional standardized regulations for dairy f armers using AMS as a compromise in order to keep pace with the practical d emands. Special regulations are required in the following fields: 1. The efficacy of mechanized cleaning processes must be checked and adjust ed if necessary. In cases where a check before milking of every cow is not feasible cleaning steps have to be regularly performed in such a way that t hey generally lead to a satisfactory result. 2. This holds in special for udder cleaning. AMS do not allow for a check i mmediately before milking. So precautions have to be taken that udders are always maintained sufficiently clean. 3. Without conventional milking times a periodical contact with every cow i s not given any longer. Therefore the herd's general hearth state has to be monitored by careful observation. A checklist of diseases, treatments and, if necessary, a limited exclusion from the milk delivery is compulsory. 4. To provide valid information on the animals' actual situation data of ev ery cow must be processed into easy to grasp reports. AMS relevant data suc h as time and number of milkings per day, yield, etc. must be integrated in to the herd management. 5. Special attention must be paid to reports on unsuccessful attempts of mi lking and extreme long times between milking sessions. The latter may be ca used by fresh teat injuries or bad health accompanied by generalized distur bances. Older teat injuries and inflammations of the udder skin should be r ecognized by systematic observation. 6. As long as the conductivity measurement will not be able to substitute t he foremilk sample, eliminating adulterated milk in a satisfactory way, AMS dairy farms should accept a lower SCC threshold for their ex-farm mi Ik to gether with a mo re frequent cell counting routine. A reference value of 20 0 000 cells/ml has been proposed. By strictly observing these requirements "AMS-dairying" farms could advance to exemplary farms not only under the technological but also under the hyg ienic aspect.