Milking machine test survey of British installations: An update

A review of milking machine tests on 640 dairy farms in England and Wales between 2012 and 2014 suggests more machines now comply with installation and operation standards than 10 years ago. However, approximately 60% of systems tested failed to meet the milking machine requirements of the farm assurance standards in the UK, with most failing to reach operational requirements on one aspect. The most common problem (47%) was that the systems had excessive vacuum line losses, with other vacuum/airline losses also common. Many machines failed on more than one aspect.