- Effective milking machine function: measuring milking time per cow, observing teat condition after milking and looking for evidence ofliner slippage problems.
- Correct milk flow through the plant: ensuring milk is carried away and not allowed to remain in cluster unit clawpieces, 'bathing' teat ends in potentially-contaminated milk.
- Correct Automatic Cluster Remover settings: which may be identified as a reason why cows are overmilked and suffer teat damage, or undermilked leading to potential mastitis problems.
- Cow flow and behaviour in the parlour: there may be spurious reasons why this is poor, such as small design problems or even stray electrical voltages.
- Operator assessment: observing techniques and practices in the parlour, correcting those which may encourage pathogen spread or teat damage.
- Correct plant cleaning function or technique: monitoring wash temperatures, flow rates, solution distribution and chemical concentrations, particularly in automatic systems.