Need info.-surge or bucket milker

NeHomesteader · #1 12/24/13, 12:30 PM

I have had dairy cows for a couple of years but between hand milking and calves i've gotten by. I'm wanting to buy a portable milker but don't know where to start. I will only be milking 1 cow at a time. Problem is,I have no heat or water in the barn so need the easiest one to clean and carry. Any other advice would help. Thanks...

sammyd · #2 12/26/13, 02:58 PM

Everybody has their preferences. I wouldn't have a Surge milker if you paid me. I don't like hanging the thing off the surcingle and readjusting as she milks out. I don't like trying to pull a loaded bucket off the surcingle and out from under the cow.
It is more immune to kickoffs but the old pulsators can be cantankerous.
I prefer a bucket style that stands off to the side of the cow and has a decent handle. I can run any sort of pulsator I want with it and certain styles of claws will auto shut off if they get kicked off.
We clean ours about the same as a pipeline, warm rinse followed by a hot wash with a pipeline detergent then a warm acid rinse dipping the unit in and out of the water to create a scrubbing effect just like an air injector in a pipeline washer. Hang it up to air dry in the warmer months take it in the house in the winter. We don't have running water or any kind of heat in the shed either.
Once a week we break the whole thing down and wash with a brush in the kitchen sink, inflations, milk hoses, lid gasket, claw etc.

springvalley · #3 12/26/13, 03:44 PM

I`m with Sammy ^ on this one !!!

NeHomesteader · #4 12/26/13, 06:57 PM

Where is a good place to buy one? What h.p vacuum pump do I need? I may eventually milk 2 cows but that would be the most. I am so clueless when It comes to this.....Thanks so much!!

sammyd · #5 12/27/13, 12:57 AM

Your pump should pull 3-5 cfm at 15" vacuum. You won't need to actually run the system at 15" but it's a good number for comparison purrposes.
You can find vacuum pumps at a lot of places and on line. A small one as used for hvac work may be OK if it will pull the required cfms. You should have a balance tank piped in between the pump and the stallcock. This allows a little leeway when attaching the milker so you don't drop all your vacuum. The tank should also have an auto drain since it will coolect any moisture before it hits the pump.

Awnry Abe · #6 12/27/13, 11:37 AM

I am using a DeLaval style bucket milker made by NuPulse. I don't have experience with other styles to offer any comparison. I have been very pleased with it. It uses a non-electronic pulsator that is located in the claw. The pulsator is plastic and has been under hoof on more occasions than I can remember. To my amasement, it hasn't broken (yet). I have a spare just in case. I really like the tall tapered shape of the bucket. Milking handling is 'sure', and clean-up is very, very easy.

The pump is a rather large 3/4 HP unit. I have 3 stanchions. When I first started out, I moved the pump & balance tank to each cow. It was quite the workout, plus was noisy. I then bought vacuum hose long enough to reach all three stations. That was convenient enough, but I found myself handling hose that was dragging on the ground. I'm overly paranoid about cleanliness, so that change was not satisfactory. I ended up moving the unit into the milk room and running PVC out to each stanchion. It is working awesome, is clean & quiet, but freezing condensation has been a challenge. I like having the noisy motor in the next room so I can hear the pulsator better. The pulsator makes a slight change in pitch when the teats milk out and I couldn't hear it over the motor until I moved it.

I will echo what sammyd said about the importance of the balance tank. Additionally, with DeLaval style bucket milkers, knocked over cans are a fact of life, and the balance tank serves as a 'save your bacon' buffer to catch the very rapidly pumping milk before it hits the pump and ruins it.

The only complaint I have about my system at this point is that it tends to leave the back quarters a little full (and the front-left quarter of my odd-shaped Jersey). Getting them milked out takes a bit of finesse. I don't think it is a design flaw. I just haven't sized the inflations correctly. With three unique cows, I don't think I will be able to, though.

tab · #7 12/27/13, 12:25 PM

I bought a milker from a recommendation on here. Cannot remember who, will check and post later. I wound up by hand milking although am thinking that is not going to work much longer. DH wants to move the cow and his to do list is endless before he wants to set it up.....Clean up is my concern, too. Does vinegar make a good acid cleaner?

sammyd · #8 12/27/13, 01:06 PM

Inflations are probably not the problem. There is no herd I have ever seen with all the teats the same size. Running a standard narrow bore inflation will cover 99% of most cows. There are the occasional large titted animals that are not as easy to fit but overall inflations are rarely the problem. Used to deal in milkers and the only time I ever saw a problem with inflations not milking out herds was when a company had tried using a different compound for the inflations and it just didn't flex properly.
I would be more apt to blame the pulsator. Back in the late 70's early 80's Nupulse was a hot item. It went into a lot of barns. You only needed 1 hose and a milk line. Didn't have the extra expense of running a pulsation air line or the hassle of carrying around the clunky pulsators and their tangly hoses...But a few years later the systems were being removed as fast as farmers could afford to. Poor milk out, very slow. I switched a system from Nupulse to a good separate pulsator set up and the farmer saw an immediate jump of his RHA by over 2000 pounds after 2 years of trying all sorts of rations to break a production plateau he had hit.

I wouldn't use anything but approved chemicals when cleaning my equipment and they are all I ever would recommend to anyone else.

Madsaw · #9 01/02/14, 09:01 AM

We are running surge buckets here. They tend to be the simplest units to run. No hose from the unit to bucket to get tangled up. Less equipment to clean. Simple and compact. Biggest thing is lower vacuum. We only run 10.5 inches. Compared to 13.5+ to keep other units on the cows. This promotes less irritation on the teat ends thus less chance of somatic cell Problems. Only down side is low uddered cows. Then free hanging units are better. But a cow can be trained to stand on a elevated post form to be milked.
Our pump is a 3 HP surge Alamo 75. The is balance tsnk znd also we run 3" pvc air lines. It will handle 6 units with ease. We also use a step saver.
Bob

sammyd · #10 01/03/14, 02:12 PM

The vacuum level that the system runs at is not a problem if you are milking the cow out properly. High line systems will run 14.5-15 inches of vacuum.
When milk enters the unit there is a pressure drop and the vacuum level on the teat ends of a properly set up system will run about 9-10 inches of vacuum regardless of where you run your vacuum pump at.