Graeme Mein
Graeme Mein has had
a long and distinguished career in the field of milking machine research and is
one of the father’s of the UW milking lab.
Following is a brief summary of his contributions to the science of
milking and of his many activities related to the UWMRIL.
In the 1970’s, Graeme Mein established the Australian Milking Research Centre at Werribee as a research and information centre on milking and mastitis, and as a base for research and extension activities in machine milking for Australia.
In the early 1980’s, David Williams and Graeme Mein unraveled some of the interesting physical and physiological responses of the teat to milking. This work had an almost immediate pay-off because it demonstrated how and why the physical properties of the liner were just as important for effective pulsation as the pulsator settings.
In the mid-1980’s, as the first Director of the Food Research Institute, Werribee, Australia, Graeme Mein established the confidential, pilot-scale research and development facilities that underpinned the strategic value of the new FRI to Australian food processing and packaging industries. Today, the FRI (now known as Food Science Australia) has become the key centre for R&D in food processing and packaging in Australia.
In the 1990’s: Alan Bringe, Graeme Mein and Doug Reinemann established the Milking Research and Instruction Laboratory at the UW-Madison as a national and international center for research and training programs on milking, cleaning, energy management and milk quality aspects of milk harvesting. This enabled the development of a rational basis for the revision of both national and international performance-based standards for milking and cleaning equipment.
1991 – 1994: As Chair of the NMC Machine Milking Committee, Graeme Mein coordinated a field project to determine the effective reserve capacity required for maintaining a stable vacuum during milking in 15 commercial milking systems. This work, which was conducted in parallel with lab and field studies led by Doug Reinemann to determine the vacuum pump capacity required for cleaning, resulted in astonishing electrical power savings on dairy farms across the USA, Canada and Mexico. Concurrently, there was an improvement in vacuum regulation on the majority of these farms.
1991 – 1996: Graeme was the US and Australian representative on the International Standards Organization committee to revise the ISO standards on Construction and Performance of Milking Systems, Mechanical Testing Procedures, an on Terminology. The fundamental shift in emphasis, largely driven by the US representatives and scientists (initially by Paul Thompson) was from the traditional standards approach based on dimensional specifications to new performance-based guidelines and standards.
1992 – 1996 As Chair of the Milk Handling sub-committee of American Society of Agricultural Engineers, Graeme coordinated and steered the review and revision of the three relevant ASAE standards. In the process, the committee succeeded in replacing much of the American 3-A Accepted Practices so that the revised ASAE performance-based guidelines were accepted by all parties as the new national standards for milking systems.
1994 – 1996: Under the auspices of the NMC Machine Milking Committee Graeme Mein and Andy Johnson and spear-headed the development and almost universal adoption of a standard test procedure for testing milking systems across the USA, Canada and Mexico. These procedures were developed concurrently with the revisions to the ISO and ASAE standards for milking machine performance and reflect these new performance standards.
1995 – 2000. Because the revised national and international standards tended to be less and less specific for components closer to the cow’s udder, the UW-Milking Lab initiated what has now become a major shift in emphasis from the “system” components of a milking system, to more systematic evaluation of milking units. The origins of this new direction are evident in papers by Mein and Hamann on quantifying the performance of the teatcup and cluster (1995), by Mein and Reid on milking-time tests and guidelines for milking units (1996) and by Mein et al. (2000) on evaluation of bovine teat condition.
1997 – 1999 Graeme coordinated a large-scale field study jointly funded by the US Department of Commerce and Bou-Matic (DEC International) and involving scientists from the University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin, private veterinary consultants and the Valley Ag Software company. The project, led by Dr Steve Stewart, has set an unofficial but effective “gold-standard” for the milking equipment industry in the accuracy and reliability of data collection in automated milking systems, and for timely provision of information for management decisions on cows, milking staff and milking equipment. Furthermore, it has produced extraordinary new results on the relationship between teat condition and milking machine settings in high-yielding herds.
2000 - 2001 Graeme coordinated an informal discussion group of researchers and udder health advisors, self-styled as the “Teat Club International”, which is attempting to reach international agreement on methods for teat evaluation and correct interpretation of results. This “Club” has now published an excellent series of collaborative papers on the influence of factors affecting the short- or medium-term changes in teat condition (AABP/NMC, 2001). The papers include a draft protocol for systematic visual evaluation and manual palpation of teats that can be used in commercial dairies. The series also throws a surprising new light on the relationship between teat-end hyperkeratosis and the risk of mastitis.