John Upton
YOU?
Author Swipe
View article: Invited review: Contribution of milk harvesting research to optimal interaction between biology and milking technology
Invited review: Contribution of milk harvesting research to optimal interaction between biology and milking technology Open
The broad focus of this review is on milk harvesting in machine-milked herds. With particular emphasis on: (1) milk secretion and storage dynamics in the udder, (2) milk ejection, (3) milk flow profiles and their effect on milking efficien…
View article: Development, validation, and demonstration of the herringbone parlor model
Development, validation, and demonstration of the herringbone parlor model Open
The objective of this study was to develop, validate, and demonstrate the herringbone parlor model (HPM). The HPM was built using empirical data collected from a sample of commercial Irish dairy farms (n = 16). The HPM is a mechanistic mod…
View article: Exploring explanation deficits in subclinical mastitis detection with explainable boosting machines
Exploring explanation deficits in subclinical mastitis detection with explainable boosting machines Open
Subclinical mastitis in cows is a major challenge to the global development of the dairy sector, as it can reduce milk yield and lead to significant financial losses for dairy farmers. Given the difficulty in detecting subclinical mastitis…
View article: Development, validation, and demonstration of the rotary parlor model
Development, validation, and demonstration of the rotary parlor model Open
Rotary milking systems have potential to reduce the labor requirement of the milking process on dairy farms. However, there is a need to identify the most effective strategies that lead to consistently efficient milkings. We developed a me…
View article: Effect of dynamic pulsation and milk flow rate switch-point settings on milking duration and postmilking teat condition
Effect of dynamic pulsation and milk flow rate switch-point settings on milking duration and postmilking teat condition Open
The objective of this study was to investigate the effect on milking duration and teat condition after milking with dynamic pulsation settings that increased the open phase and reduced the closed phase of pulsation during the peak milk flo…
View article: Identifying strategies to enhance the milking and operator efficiency of herringbone and rotary parlor systems in Ireland
Identifying strategies to enhance the milking and operator efficiency of herringbone and rotary parlor systems in Ireland Open
International trends of increasing dairy herd sizes coupled with scarcity of labor have necessitated the enhancement of labor efficiency for dairy production systems. This study quantified the effects of infrastructure, automation, and man…
View article: Using milk flow profiles for subclinical mastitis detection
Using milk flow profiles for subclinical mastitis detection Open
Mastitis is a significant disease on dairy farms and can have serious negative animal performance and economic consequences if not controlled. While clinical mastitis is often easily identified due to visibly abnormal milk, subclinical mas…
View article: Measurement of cow comfort during milking on different cluster removal settings through the use of leg-mounted accelerometers
Measurement of cow comfort during milking on different cluster removal settings through the use of leg-mounted accelerometers Open
Increasing levels of data are routinely collected on modern dairy farms. These include multiple variables measured by milking machine sensors and software and cow-attached sensor data, used predominantly for fertility and health monitoring…
View article: Factors affecting energy efficiency in herringbone and rotary milking parlours
Factors affecting energy efficiency in herringbone and rotary milking parlours Open
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals aim to double the productivity of small-medium food producers (2015-2030), while food demand is estimated to increase by 60 % by 2050. The objectives of this paper were to identify and quant…
View article: The effects of seasonality, management, infrastructure, and automation on the milking efficiency of herringbone and rotary milking parlors in Ireland
The effects of seasonality, management, infrastructure, and automation on the milking efficiency of herringbone and rotary milking parlors in Ireland Open
The objective of this study was to document the milking efficiency of a sample of Irish dairy farms and to understand the effects of (1) seasonality, (2) management practices, (3) parlor infrastructure, and (4) parlor automations on milkin…
View article: Effect of milk flow-rate switch-point settings on milking duration and udder health throughout lactation
Effect of milk flow-rate switch-point settings on milking duration and udder health throughout lactation Open
The objective of this study was to quantify the effects of different milk flow-rate switch-point settings on milking duration, somatic cell count (SCC), strip milk, teat condition, and milk yield in a grass-based system in a long-term expe…
View article: Effect of milk flow rate switch-point settings on cow comfort and milking duration
Effect of milk flow rate switch-point settings on cow comfort and milking duration Open
Automatic cluster removers (ACR) operate by ceasing vacuum to the cluster and detaching the milking unit from the udder by means of a retracting cord once the milk flow has decreased to a predefined level (i.e., the milk flow rate switch-p…
View article: Re-thinking water use in pig diets while accounting for food-feed competition
Re-thinking water use in pig diets while accounting for food-feed competition Open
Livestock feed production is one of the primary users of freshwater and arable land, and it is also in competition with human food production. Therefore, we require reconsideration of the way we use freshwater in livestock feed production.…
View article: Effect of mechanical premilking stimulation on milking duration in late lactation
Effect of mechanical premilking stimulation on milking duration in late lactation Open
This study documents the effect of mechanical prestimulation on the milking duration of pasture-based cows in late lactation to better harness increased capacity of automation in the milk harvesting process. Premilking stimulation, provide…
View article: Simulation model of quarter milk flowrates to estimate quarter and cow milking duration and automated milking system's box duration
Simulation model of quarter milk flowrates to estimate quarter and cow milking duration and automated milking system's box duration Open
The aims of this research were (1) to develop a model to simulate a herd of cows and quarter milk flowrates for a milking and derive quarter and udder milking durations and box duration (i.e., the time a cow spends inside the robot) for a …
View article: Assessing the Effect of Modifying Milking Routines on Dairy Farm Economic and Environmental Performance
Assessing the Effect of Modifying Milking Routines on Dairy Farm Economic and Environmental Performance Open
The objective of this paper was to quantify the economic and environmental effects of changing a dairy farm’s milking start times. Changing morning and evening milking start times could reduce both electricity costs and farm electricity re…
View article: Effect of different cleaning procedures on water use and bacterial levels in weaner pig pens
Effect of different cleaning procedures on water use and bacterial levels in weaner pig pens Open
Pork is one of the most globally eaten meats and the pig production chain contributes significantly to the water footprint of livestock production. However, very little knowledge is available about the on-farm factors that influence freshw…
View article: Short communication: Increasing the teatcup removal settings of the last milking quarter did not reduce box time in a pasture-based automatic milking system
Short communication: Increasing the teatcup removal settings of the last milking quarter did not reduce box time in a pasture-based automatic milking system Open
This research followed our previous experimental and simulation work on the effect of different teatcup removal settings based on the rolling average milk flowrate and on milking duration at the quarter and udder levels. The aims of this e…
View article: A Global Review of Monitoring, Modeling, and Analyses of Water Demand in Dairy Farming
A Global Review of Monitoring, Modeling, and Analyses of Water Demand in Dairy Farming Open
The production of milk must be balanced with the sustainable consumption of water resources to ensure the future sustainability of the global dairy industry. Thus, this review article aimed to collate and summarize the literature in the da…