Dairy Sheep Symposium - the Department of Animal Sciences ...

Bucket milking and elevated platform (between 20 and 120 ewes)
Many sheep dairy producers in the U.S. and Canada have adopted the bucket and fixed
stanchion system on an elevated platform because of the modest investment it requires. The
stanchion is generally on an elevated platform with 6 or 12 fixed stalls with “cascading” yokes.
The first ewe on the platform goes to the furthest end where a yoke is open. By putting its head
through to get to the feed, the animal locks itself in and releases the mechanism that opens the
next yoke and so on until the whole platform is occupied. The system works fairly well and is
easy to build at low cost. The feed is generally distributed by hand between each batch. The
milking is performed in buckets developed for cows or goats. The vacuum in the bucket is
provided by a vacuum pump located either next to the bucket (as a wheel barrow system) or in an
adjacent room, and the pulsator is fixed on the lid of the bucket, which is also equipped with a
filter. Two ewes at a time can be milked with the same bucket.
Several disadvantages arise with bucket milking:
- The vacuum level is not always constant which could lead to an unusual high incidence of
sub-clinical mastitis reflected by an elevated Somatic Cell Count.
- The pulsators are often old and not adjustable to the required speed for ewes, therefore
limiting the stimulation necessary for maximum evacuation of the udder.
- Some difficulties in cooling the milk rapidly
- Heavy weight hauling
- Low throughput of ewes. One milker can milk only 40 ewes an hour.
- Bad working postures
- Much time involved in cleaning equipment
The same type of stanchion can be used with a low line or high line pipe line which greatly
facilitates milking, reduces the heavy weight lifting and permits the use of equipment better
adapted to sheep milking.
Parlors for larger flocks (above 120 ewes)
The « Casse System »
The « Casse » parlor was born in 1961 in an experimental farm in the Roquefort area of
France named Casse farm. This parlor had been developed for the Lacaune breed and for the
special working routine developed from the poor milking ability of the ewes at the time. The
typical routine during milking used at that time can be described as follows:
- attaching clusters on teats without washing,
- hand massaging after one minute of milking,
- machine stripping and detaching after 180 seconds of milking,
- re-milking by hand for 10 or 20 seconds.
At the beginning of the 1960’s, only 80 ewes per hour could be milked with this poor routine
by two milkers with 12 milking units and a 24 stall parlor. Much progress has been accomplished
since then with the development of better equipment and the simplification of the milking routine:
suppression of massaging, stripping and re-milking by hand.
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