A new step in liners: from rubber to silicone

Dairy farming never stands still. Automation, animal health and milking process optimization continue to develop - and seemingly small components sometimes play a surprisingly large role. One of those components? The liner.

HappyFarmer has been responding to this for years with their reliable rubber HappyLiner liners for milking robots. After years of proven results, a new step is now coming: the introduction of the HappyLiner FLS-0021, a silicone liner specially developed for Lely milking robots.

Why switch to silicone?

Silicone is becoming increasingly popular in dairy farming. And that's not without reason. Compared to rubber, it offers several advantages:

More flexible material: more comfortable for the teat, thus more comfort for the cow
Less chance of cracking: maintains its shape better
4x longer lifespan: silicone (10,000 milkings) wears less quickly than rubber (2,500 milkings)

These advantages were the starting point for Marte van Hastenberg, who translated his experience as a technician and installer of milking robots into this practical innovation: the FLS-0021.

Research in practice: how does the FLS-0021 perform?

The real value of a product only becomes clear in the barn, of course. That's why our intern Koen van Zutphen (third-year Livestock student at HAS Geen Academy) set up practical research at multiple dairy farms.

Research setup

Multiple dairy farms switched to the HappyLiner FLS-0021
Per milking robot, data was collected from 10,000 milkings before and 10,000 milkings after the switch
On each farm, at least one milking robot continued working with the original silicone liner - as a control group
The data was analyzed with SPSS statistical software

Measurement points

Milking speed
Number of refusals
Number of milkings
Somatic cell count

Results: this stood out

The results are promising. These are the main findings:

1. Milking speed
The FLS-0021 increases the minimum average milking speed by 0.1 kg per minute, up to as much as 0.3 kg per minute. This may seem small, but adds up over an entire herd - and saves you quite a bit of time per day.

2. Refusals
The number of refusals per milking robot increased by an average of 55%. This seems like a deterioration, but it's not: more refusals means that cows come to the milking robot more often on their own.

3. Somatic cell count and failures
No significant difference was found in somatic cell count or number of failed milkings. However, there were farm-specific trends that showed positive differences. This suggests that some farms can achieve additional benefits - depending on management and animal group.

Recommendations and next steps

The results show that the FLS-0021 performs well in principle, but effectiveness can differ per farm or group of cows. So, what does the new Happyliner FLS-0021 liner add to your milking robot? The Happyliner FLS-0021 silicone liner ensures a smoother milking process: higher milking speeds, more spontaneous milking sessions from your cows and that for an affordable price.

In short: an investment that pays for itself in happy cows and a happy farmer!