Hygiene is an important aspect in milking. Proper and timely cleaning around the robot is important in order to maintain udder health and milk quality and to avoid unnecessary robot maintenance. In this article, the optimal routine for twice-a-day robot cleaning is described.
Management, Cow health, Milking
Take the robot out of operation and place it in a service position in which is easy for you to work with it.
Then get some warm water, soap and a brush. Steps to take:
Wash and clean the robot arm, laser house, teat cups and twin. Rinse off with cold water.
Clean the bleed hole in each teat cup with the bleed hole needle.
Check clips and hoses for cracks, splits and holes and check the cup cords. Check for wear and shorten and replace if required.
Wash and clean the cover plate for the teat cups. Brush the arm/hanger and rinse with cold water. Check if Lely Astri-L solution has been sprayed on the brushes (smell) and if the hairs on the brushes are firm and full length. There should be no gap between the brushes. For older types of brushes, make sure the dry pins are touching the brush to dry it after cleaning (these can be moved if kicked by a cow).
Spray and clean the laser with Astri-TDS. Wipe clean with a clean tissue.
After this, wash the entire robot area and cow standing area to remove loose manure. Be aware that there are fragile components in the robot arm, so make sure that you only clean with water the parts described above. Please note that the Lely Foam Cleaner is specially designed to clean the robot area.
In addition to this, it is always good to check the availability of chemicals for internal robot cleaning and teat spraying. Also clean the filter housing and replace the milk filter.
This cleaning takes around 10 minutes a day. It is definitely worth this small investment of time. There is no chance for dirt to build up, good milk quality and cow health are maintained and unnecessary alarms are prevented.
