Vol. 11, Special Issue 9 (2022)

Author(s):
Deepak Biradar, John Abraham and Balusami C

Abstract:
Milking is the most important daily operation in a dairy farm. Despite the development in mechanization majority of the animals are still being hand milked. Which is adversely affecting the workload and increased risk of Musculo-skeletal disorders among milkers due to poor body postures and hand movements. This study was conducted to compare and evaluate electrical milking machine (T₁), hand milking (T₂) and manual milking machine (T₃), on the physiological parameters of the milker. Fifteen freshly calved crossbred dairy cows were randomly selected and allotted to three different treatment groups adopting switch-over design. The cows were milked for 60 days both in the morning and evening sessions. The physiological parameters of the milker (Blood Pressure, Heart Rate and Respiratory Rate) compared before and after milking revealed that, the stress undergone by the milker was higher in T₂ compared to T₁ and T₃. The study revealed that, hand milking caused much stress to the milker. The Electric milking machine was found to be superior in terms of ergonomics of milking and relatively less work stress was observed compared to other milking systems. However, Manual milking machine, intermediate in terms of ergonomics, can be recommended for small holder dairy farmers.