Order of sheep entry into the milking parlour and its relationship with their milkability

Sixty Manchega ewes were used to evaluate whether recently weaned dairy sheep organise themselves into a well-defined sequence to enter into the milking parlour and to study the effects on their milkability during an 11-week milking period after a 5-week suckling + milking period. A two-platform milking parlour was used, with 12 stalls on each platform and a milking routine including machine stripping and hand stripping. Conclusive evidence of the existence of a milking order was established. Animals which were in the last group to enter the milking parlour presented milk ejection less (P < 0.01) frequently, a lower (P < 0.001) percentage of machine milking fractions and a higher (P < 0.001) percentage of stripping milk fractions. However, somatic cell count was not significantly correlated to any of the tested variables. Thus, the order of entry into the milking parlour after weaning is a good indicator of sheep milkability throughout lactation.