Patent ID: 8695532

Claim:
A milking system for milking an animal, comprising: a vacuum pump ( 11 ); milking equipment ( 15 ) comprising a milk tube ( 20 ) discharging into a receiving vessel ( 21 ); a conduit ( 14 ) connecting said receiving vessel ( 21 ) of said milking equipment to said vacuum pump; a first vacuum regulator ( 25 ) provided in the conduit ( 14 ) between the vacuum pump and the receiving vessel to substantially maintain a preset vacuum level in said milking equipment; a second vacuum regulator ( 27 , 29 , 30 a ) provided in the conduit ( 14 ), arranged between said first vacuum regulator and said vacuum pump, and provided for regulating said preset vacuum level in the milking equipment to a desired level by adjusting a vacuum level in the conduit; and a milk meter ( 39 ) arranged for measuring a current milk flow value of milk flow from the animal during milking by said milking equipment, wherein said second vacuum regulator comprises i) an adjustable air admitting part ( 31 ) provided for admitting air to enter said conduit ( 14 ), and ii) a control unit ( 29 ) provided for controlling said adjustable air admitting part ( 31 ) depending on the current measured milk flow value during milking the animal to thereby control the milking vacuum level during the milking, and wherein the milk meter is arranged to provide the current measured milk flow value to the control unit ( 29 ), and wherein the second vacuum regulator adjusts the vacuum level in the conduit based on the current measured milk flow value by increasing the vacuum level in the conduit to a level sufficient to compensate for vacuum loss at the milking equipment and to prevent teat cups at the milking equipment from dropping off of teats of the animal when the current measured milk flow value is increased from a previously-measured milk flow value.