Table 3.
Evaluation of hygiene on the investigated dairy cattle farms
| Area | Hygiene score by farm | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Farm I | Farm II | Farm III | |||||||
| Winter | Spring | Summer | Winter | Spring | Summer | Winter | Spring | Summer | |
| Milk room | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Milking station a | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Waiting area | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Manure passage | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Resting area | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Cow cleanliness | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Feed troughs | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Water troughs | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Mean score of evaluation overall | 2.5 | 2.9 | 3 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 2.3 | 2.4 | 2.8 |
| Mean hygiene score | 2.8 | 1.4 | 2.5 | ||||||
a: Refers to the milking parlor in farms I and III or the milking unit of an automatic milking system in farm II
Each area received a score from 1 to 3, where 1 is major deficits in production hygiene, 2 is minor deficits in production hygiene, and 3 is no notable deficits in production hygiene