Manage Udder Health and Milk Quality
VaDia is developed by BioControl in close cooperation with IDF, the International Dairy Federation and Tine, the Norwegian dairy farmers cooperative. VaDia logs the vacuum during milking at 4 points in the milking cluster. It is battery operated and small and lightweight enough to be attached to a teat-cup during milking. VaDia is the ideal instrument for Milking Time Testing and Pulsator Testing, designed for technicians, advisors, veterinarians and other professionals in the dairy industry.
VaDia is winner of the Agribex 2011 gold medal.

VaDia is supplied in a kit with all necessary tools and accesories

Udder health problems are often related to the milking equipment, many times in combination with inadequate milking routines. Notorious are teat-end vacuum fluctuations due to poor quality liners, liner slips or insufficient vacuum capacity. Pathogens reaching the teat-end due to ‘back-spray’ or ‘cluster flooding’ is another known cause.

VaDia is battery operated and works completely stand-alone, which enables the advisor to forget about the actual recording and concentrate on observing milking routines. The Bluetooth streaming data enables peak-flow teat-end vacuum recordings and in-parlor diagnostics.

VaDia can be used on all brands and types of milking equipment, including robots.

Milking Time Test with VaDia gives insight in:

Research clearly demonstrates that malfunctioning pulsators have a big impact on udder health and milk quality. Correct timing of the A, B, C and D-phases is important to ensure fast and complete milking; correct vacuum build-up in the pulsator channels is necessary to ensure proper liner opening and closring. Professional dairy farmers understand that the pulsator is a critical component that needs to be tested periodically.

VaDia pulsator testing can be done

• online (Bluetooth streaming for immediate result during the test)
• offline (analyze all pulsator data after the test)

VaDia Suite PC program also has a Tablet Module with user interface designed for touch screens.

The 4 channels Bluetooth streaming data makes the VaDia very suitable for robots.

The objective of the cluster falloff and attachment test is to test if the vacuum recovery is in accordance with the ISO 6690 standard, which is mandatory in certain countries. The VaDia Suite contains a module to test if the vacuum recovery is according to the standard.

The cleaning of the milk line is assured through a few different processes. Here we are analyzing the physical aspect of the slug that is being sent through the milk line. To create this slug we will be adjusting the air injection rate and volume of water being sent through the milk line. The desired outcome will be a full column of water for the entirety of the tube. Too much force behind the slug will cause it to become turbulent and fall apart, too little and the column of water will not hold itself together. Both results are inadequate and will end up not properly cleaning the equipment.

The milk should flow from the teat to the milk line as fast and smooth as possible without turbulence. This is significantly influenced by the vacuum resistance.

A Milkflow Resistance Test would make it possible to analyse where the main resistance in the milkflow is. VaDia makes it possible to measure vacuum levels at different points in the milkflow simultaneously.

Channel 1: Short Milk Tube (SMT)

Channel 2: Long Milkhose at Cluster (LMC)

Channel 3: Long Milkhose at Sensor (LMS)

Channel 4: Milk Line (ML)

This data makes analysing vacuum drops over parts of the way the milk travels possible, so you know in which stage of the milk transport the main resistance is:

Cluster (LMC-SMT)

Elevation of milkhose (LMS-LMC)

Sensor (ML-LMS)

Parlour efficiency is very important to the profitability of all dairies regardless of their size.

The major factor in parlour efficiency in milking parlours is determined by the number of times each side is filled and milked in an hour. This is called the number of turns per hour.

This is affected by the following factors:

• transfer of cows to and from the milking parlour,
• milking tasks / work routines
• milking times of the cow,

A great goal for any parlour is to turn the parlor 4 to 6 times per hour.

Based on data collected during Milking Time Test, VaDia can provide valuable information, such as, number of turns per hour, average milking and loading time.

VaDia Mobile is a software developed by BioControl for Android Operating System which can be used to view current, maximum, minimum and average vacuum in kPa or inHg from VaDia device in real time (via Bluetooth) as well update time on the device, view the streaming data graph, perform a Pulsator Test or create a report.
Keep in mind VaDia Mobile will only change the time displayed later during the test, it will not initialize the device.
NOTE: To be able to change time on your device, firmware version must be at least 2.4.0.

The software can be downloaded from Play Store. Go to your Play Store and look for Vadia Mobile.

Vadia Mobile User Manual

Vadia Mobile Leaflet

VaDia Suite is a complete PC-software package, designed for maximum use of your VaDia:

VaDia Suite is designed for PC’s with Microsoft Windows Operating System.
Minimum OS: Windows 7 with .NET Framework 4.5 (also works with Windows 8 and 10)
Minimum RAM: 4GByte

Try it if you like it: Contact us to get a free trial period of the VaDia Suite PC Program.

Downloading and running this link will install VaDia Updater on your PC.

Odd Ronningen (right)

Johan Grolleman

Ghislain Coppejans