Comparative assessment of milking temperament and somatic cell count in Sahiwal cows and Murrah buffaloes under hand and machine milking

The study compared the effect of two different milking methods (hand vs. machine milking) in Murrah buffaloes and Sahiwal cows. The emphasis was laid upon the changes witnessed in milking temperament and somatic cell count (SCC) under hand and machine milking environment. 30 lactating sahiwal cows and 30 lactating murrah buffaloes were selected and divided into four equal groups having 15 animals each. 15 animals of each species were subjected to machine milking and 15 animals of each species were subjected to hand milking respectively. The results indicated that temperament score was found to have moderate to high association with body condition score, udder characteristics and SCC and significant (p<0.05) difference between the species with buffaloes being more temperamental than Sahiwal cows. However, variation between milking system was non-significant. Somatic cell count varies significantly (p<0.05) between milking systems. The results showed that machine milking can be executed both in Sahiwal cows and Murrah buffalo without appreciable adverse effect on milking behavior and SCC.