The aim of this paper was to describe all known milking systems and methods for
milking small ruminants, based on a review of existing and available literature. In
addition to the literature review, this paper presents the results of the inventory of barns
and milking systems for sheep and goats in Slovenia as part of the CRP project "V4
2012 Development of sustainable barn construction concepts". Barns for small
ruminants are mostly of simple construction. The milking parlour is often the most
modern part of the barn,. For machine milking in the milking parlour, the most common
in Slovenia is the parallel side-by-side milking parlour for small ruminants, followed by
the swing-over milking parlour, which is a parallel milking parlour with mobile milking
units between the left and the right part, and the mobile milking parlour, which is most
commonly used by breeders for milking animals on pasture. The rotolactor, which is
used abroad for milking very large flocks of small ruminants, is not yet available in
Slovenia. In addition to machine milking, sheep and goats are still milked by hand by a
few breeders. Hand milking also leads to poorer hygiene and milk quality, so it is
important that breeders pay strict attention to hygiene when milking by hand.
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