Milk collecting system for automatic milk apparatus

Abstract

A collector member for the vacuum hose lines and pulsator lines from the milking cups of an automatic milking machine is provided which permits connection of the vacuum hose lines to a milk line or milk pail such that milk never contacts any part of the collector member itself. The collector is advantageously used in a system in which the vacuum hose lines from the milking cups are attached to a multi-lumen milk hose with each hose line being connected to a respective lumen in the multi-lumen milk hose. The collector member is sufficiently weighted so as to provide desirable tension to the teats of the animal being milked. The collector provides a means for terminating the vacuum in the respective vacuum hose lines when the milking cups to which they are attached drop from the teat of the animal being milked. The vacuum terminating means comprises an elongate blunt element positioned adjacent to the hose lines as they emerge from the collector member such that when a milking cup falls from its respective teat on the animal being milked, the hose line on the fallen milk cup folds over the elongate blunt element to close the hose line. The collector advantageously allows the use of vacuum hoses made of silicon rubber which have useful lives some seven (7) times that of conventional rubber hose lines. Use of silicon rubber and elimination of milk contact with the collector member further greatly reduces bacteriological contamination which can cause mastitis in the animals being milked.