Evolution of milk production of the Greek mountain sheep breed by using different methods of hand and mechanical milking and stripping

摘要

The aim of this work was to study the evolution of milk production and milk composition of the Greek mountain sheep breed when different methods of milking are used. For this study, 60 ewes from the first to fourth lactation were used. They were allocated into four groups equal in terms of daily milk yield. live weight and prolificacy. The experiment was carried out in two periods of three weeks. During the first period ewes from all groups were machine milked only. Amounts of milk collected via machine milking and machine stripping were recorded. During the second period, ewes from the first group were subjected to machine milking, machine stripping and hand stripping, while the ewes of the second group were machine milked and machine stripped. In the third group, ewes were hand milked and stripped while those in the fourth group were hand milked without stripping. Every week, during each milk yield, recording samples, of milk were collected for the determination of fat, protein and lactose percentage. The different treatment of milking during the second experimental period resulted in a significant difference between the groups regarding milk production and milk composition. The average daily milk production of the ewes from the 1st, 2nd, 3rdand 4th group was 659. 546. 569 and 432ml, respectively while milk fat content was 71.4, 69.4, 73.6 and 68.8g/l, respectively for the same groups. The results of this work showed that by avoiding hand stripping during machine or hand milking of mountainsheep breed milk production was reduced by 30 percent.