Do you use cloth or paper towels for milking? We have always used paper, but I became interested in the cloth/microfiber towels as a sustainability tool. When I thought about it though, you have to wash them in hot water and dry them in the dryer, which probably has a worse environmental impact than the towels degrading in the manure pit. I don't know anyone who's used the cloth and I was just curious which was really better for the environment and from a cost standpoint.
Cloth or paper?
- Thread starter LoveMoo11
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TexasBred
Well-known member
LoveMoo11":2d46wxbf said:
We always used the cloth towels entirely....one towel per cow...wash, dry and re-use. No tons and tons of wet towels to dispose of and never had any major probelms with SSC or bacteria counts.
Some depends on your inspector. Aorund here they want a single towel for each cow. Of course whenthe inspector isn;t aournd I've seen them milk with no prep at all, just run them in and slap the milkers on.
TexasBred
Well-known member
dun":1pjsso6g said:
Oh mercy...no pre-dip or anything?? Bet that sock filter going to the tank had to be changed twice every milking.
hillsdown
Well-known member
We have used both of them . The cloths were really a pita. As you use one per cow sometimes alot more depending on how dirty the cow had gotten their udder. We did a load of towels a day as we had a washer and dryer in the milk house. Then you had to fold them and get them ready for the next days milking, alot of extra work when you already had too much to do. We switched to bio degradable paper towels, less work and the cows SCC stayed the same ..
regolith
Well-known member
wtf??
After swishing it through boiling sanitised water, one hopes.
Filters... you didn't want to know, TB. How do you suppose NZers regularly put 200 cows an hour through their smaller sheds at milking time? Apart from the occasional cow, about the only time they get washed is if it's raining and the udders are splashed with mud.
Several people have told me to change the filter before putting the wash through, and I wont do it - or if I do another new filter goes on before the next milking. Standard routine is start the rinse water going through, take the filter out, hose off all loose dirt, replace it, discard at the end of the hot wash.
I don't know why people don't 'get' that if they wash through a new filter fat and dirt is deposited on the filter during the wash, then left to culture bacteria till next milking. Same if a filter is washed and re-used.
hillsdown
Well-known member
dun":1w3l43tv said:
Wasn't the milk ever refused because of the high bacteria count ?? Does the milk truck test the milk before they pick it up ?
Never refused but they got docked every loadhillsdown":1awn94mb said:
Trucker doesn;t test for anything. They had to pay for a couple of loads (insurance) after it was condemned for antibiotics form milking treated cows into the bulk tank.
bigbull338
Well-known member
we used white wash clothes to dry the cows baggs.an we only used 1 pre cow.if you use 1 on more than 1 cow your asking for trouble fast.we tryed to keep enough raggs for 2 or 3 days.
TexasBred
Well-known member
regolith":2815kyvq said:
Can't even imagine not cleaning the teats....and the filters we used were for one milking and then disposed of....if there was much of anything even on that filter we knew someone was not doing a good job of cleaning. Never washed teats...only pre-dipped them and then came along with the dry towels and dried them which would remove any dirt or manure that was on the teat.
LoveMoo11
Well-known member
TexasBred":2ucu7ula said:
Pretty gross...and scary that some people do things like that! There's a farm around here where the milkers have to hang up the filter sock after milking so that the owner can inspect it and make sure they did a good job. Thanks for the responses too.
novaman
Well-known member
I used to think cloth would be the way to go. After figuring the washing and drying I decided it wouldn't be any cheaper and would make for more work. I use paper towels, one per cow. I put all the used paper towels into a compost pile I have.
There was a dairy in my area that did no washing, wiping or dipping of any cows. They didn't do any dry treating or treatments for mastitis. They were constantly getting warnings from DFA about high SCC. They sure could move the cows through the parlor though :roll: .
There was a dairy in my area that did no washing, wiping or dipping of any cows. They didn't do any dry treating or treatments for mastitis. They were constantly getting warnings from DFA about high SCC. They sure could move the cows through the parlor though :roll: .
TexasBred
Well-known member
novaman":zrirchge said:
Their own a$$ was probably just as nasty. :shock:
GMN
Well-known member
I use cloth, got a separate washer and dryewr in the well house, use good detergent and bleach, them dry them, works great, really don't know how anyone can afford to use paper towels, what a waste of money.
Did you know that in MO a milk filter is not a requirement for Grade A-my fieldman told me that, and I was shocked, who wouldn't use a milk filter, makes sense to use them, but its not a requirement for Grade A.
GMN
Did you know that in MO a milk filter is not a requirement for Grade A-my fieldman told me that, and I was shocked, who wouldn't use a milk filter, makes sense to use them, but its not a requirement for Grade A.
GMN
TexasBred
Well-known member
GMN":1b5eqsrw said:
You're talking about the sock filter between the milk pump and the tank??? Wow...can only imagine what goes into the milk on some of these operations. But the inspector is never around when you're milking so I guess you could get away with it 99.99% of the time even if it were required.
GMN
Well-known member
TexasBred":knxizcx0 said:
Yep thats what I'm talking about, seems to me that should be a requirement of grade A for sure.
GMN
novaman
Well-known member
It sounds like MO needs to update their rules. I don't care how clean your cows are and how good of a job you do milking, there is always going to be some "stuff" that gets caught on the filter. As far as the paper towels, it really isn't that expensive. A package of paper towels costs me $13.85. There are 2160 sheets in a package. That means it costs me 0.64 CENTS per cow per milking. I have about 50 head so that is 100 sheets per day or 64 cents per day. So in a year's time it costs me roughly $234 for my paper towel supply. I consider that to be one of the cheapest things in the whole operation and they are always dry and clean so there is no risk of residue or bacteria. Further, I compost the used paper towels so I get the benefit of the compost down the line. I guess cloth economics depends on how long the towels last. From what I understand they won't make it past a year or two. You also have to figure the cost of electricity and detergent. I'm not saying it isn't more economical. The numbers that I could come up with didn't look to be promising. Further, I would hate to be constantly hauling, washing, and folding towels. It's bad enough I have to do my own laundry :lol:
TexasBred
Well-known member
Nova we used paper for awhile but the accumulation was just too much. We were milking a lot more cattle so it took a lot more towels. Same for the cloth but there was just something about those fresh clean folded cloth towels that I liked so much better. Not to mention the 200 lbs. of wet nasty paper to try and get rid of every day and I didn't want to pay $100 a month for a dumpster. Both used properly will do the job so it's just a matter of preference.
