Have a look at your hands - the cracks, folds and lines in your skin are an ideal environment for bacteria to survive and thrive in. Hands with areas of rough and/or cracked skin are even more difficult to keep clean between cows.

Some mastitis causing bacteria are even capable of surviving on hands for up to 3 days with normal washing and showering!

This is especially important if you have just handled an infected cow - either a cow with a high cell count or a clinical case of mastitis - because bacteria in milk from infected cows can spread to other cows on your hands.

It is much easier to clean and disinfect gloves than it is to clean and disinfect hands, especially when the skin is rough and cracked. And with gloves, you can quickly and easily discard your gloves for a fresh pair after handling an infected cow or clinical case.

The wearing of gloves has become standard practice for most Australian dairies - Dairy Focus strongly recommends routine wearing of gloves during milking, and this is one element of risk that is assessed and scored in every Dairy Focus Mastitis Risk Assessment.

For most people, nitrile milking gloves are the most convenient and comfortable - there are a number of different brands and they are widely available in a range of sizes.

Hands tend to sweat less in them, they have a smooth impervious surface that is easy to clean, and they are somewhat tear resistant.

Latex gloves are also available, although many people find then less comfortable and they do tend to "catch & tear" more easily.

As with any item of clothing, if you find that a particular glove or brand of gloves irritates your hands, try another brand - most people will find a glove that suits them.

Let’s review the “let down” process.

A cow’s milk is not sitting in a large “tank” inside her udder, just waiting for us to put cups on and milk it out - the cow actually has to let her milk down for us to be able to extract it.

When a cow decides to let her milk down, commonly in response to familiar stimuli (such as feed arriving in the bail and/or teats being handled as they are washed and dried), her brain sends a message to the pituitary gland to release the hormone, oxytocin. Oxytocin travels in the bloodstream to the udder where it causes all of the tiny milk producing alveoli to contract, squeezing the milk out into the ducts, from where it flows down into the udder cistern, then the teat cistern, and it can then be removed by the vacuum of our milking system.

To put it really simply – if there is no squeeze, you get no milk!!!

So that's the first reason why "let-down" is so important - to actually get the milk out of the cow!

If cups go onto teats before the cow has let down, the lack of milk flow causes the vacuum she experiences at the teat end to be higher than when milk flow is occurring.

With no milk flow (or low milk flow) and high vacuum, she is likely to experience “cup crawl” at the start of milking - cups will crawl high on the teat at the start of milking, and congestion and swelling at the base of the teat is then quite likely.

Also, if teats have extended far enough into the liner, it may lead to an increased risk of teat end damage.

Position of the liner on teats soon after cups on

Position of the liner on teats after cup crawl has occurred

There is usually a slight natural restriction at the point where the teat cistern meets the udder cistern. Thus, excessive congestion and swelling in this area leads to a restriction of milk flow, commonly causing a dribble finish and/or incomplete milk out.

This is the second reason why "let-down" is important - to make milking as quick & efficient as possible

Also, if cup crawl has caused teats to extend far enough into the liner, it may lead to an increased risk of teat end damage.

At the individual cow level, if this happens repeatedly, the individual cow is at a significant risk of teat end damage and increased risk of mastitis.

At the herd level, if this is happening in a significant number of cows, then the overall milking will be slower and the herd level risk of mastitis will be higher.

If there is then also a degree of over milking before cups come off, the risk of teat damage and the consequent risk of mastitis becomes even higher!

Thus, the third reason why "let-down" is important is to reduce the risk of both teat end damage and mastitis.

Hence, one of the key observations during a milking time assessment is to assess the level of “failure to let down” prior to cups on, as well as the degree of over milking.