New milker. Looking for tips and tricks and suggestions.

[I luv herfrds]

My Jersey kicked me 3 times just below my knee in the same spot and I ended up having an ultrasound done to make sure nothing was broke or I had a blood clot.
I know it hurts like fire.
If these cows have been hit and screamed at as you say then they do not trust people. I bet as long as you continue the way you are going these cows will get used to you and will calm down around you.
This will make you a better herdsman!

 

[CobaltSmith]

My Jersey kicked me 3 times just below my knee in the same spot and I ended up having an ultrasound done to make sure nothing was broke or I had a blood clot.
I know it hurts like fire.
If these cows have been hit and screamed at as you say then they do not trust people. I bet as long as you continue the way you are going these cows will get used to you and will calm down around you.
This will make you a better herdsman!

I only started in Oct and already I feel like I know a great deal more than some who have been there 5yrs and more. You wouldn't believe the arrogance and snide remarks when I repeat what I was trained to do as they decide to do something else. My favorite was when someone didn't change a pipe and we dumped over 200 gallons of milk right down the drain. Few days later I commented on how they were doing something wrong while cleaning the milkers. They replied, "I've been doing this for 12 years, I think I know what I'm doing....". Thus, it would seem the biggest problem I have to contend with is everyone "knowing" more than everyone else. It's maddening.

They do have sleeves and one of them JUST fits me so that makes me happy. The heffers are still driving me insane and REFUSE to calm down. I don't know, I try my best and I'll just have to continue to do so. But I gotta talk to the boss about my pay. When the average salery in Michigan for my job is 22k and I'm getting around 15k AND have to tolerate a beating because of shitty employees. Oh well, time will tell.

Are we allowed to post pics and such? I took a pic of how I have to contort to reach them properly. Just don't want to break anymore rules........

 

[I luv herfrds]

Yeah heifers are a pain. It is their first year as milkers and they are not sure what to do.

Oh yeah fellow employees stuck in their own routine and know more then the newbie who has been trained by the owner. :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:
Been there dealt with it.

Yes we can post pictures.

 

[regolith]

You can post pics, but the solutions to being too tall aren't easy ones.
I'm guessing that if you're milking Holstein cows an appropriate difference between your floor level and the cows' feet should be around three and a half feet. If so adjusting milking technique might help, if it's less than that your time in that shed may be limited if you don't want to spend your future in a back brace.

 

[chippie]

Something is wrong if the cows don't want to be milked. The vacuum could be adjusted wrong and they could be getting shocked as mentioned.
We have milk cows and cows want to be milked. They are not dumb. They are intelligent and when mis handled or treated poorly, you can't expect them to be happy to be milked in a bad environment where each person treats them differently.

Stressed and anxious cows will produce less milk. This sounds like a management problem too. Unless all of the milkers treat the cows in a calm and respectful way, they will not calm down. Ask about putting a kick stop on them to help protect yourself.

 

[jerry27150]

if you have stray voltage, you should have a lot of mastitis & high cell count, if not I would say the pulsators may not be working correctly or vacuum could be too high