Abstract: A system for controlling and operating a cow-milking carousel which is rotatable at different speeds and has an entrance, an exit and a plurality of milking stations wherein teat cups are applied to an animal and are automatically removed when the animal has been milked. The system has at least two checkpoints along a direction of rotation for monitoring a position of the teat cups of milking stations passing thereby and for effecting an automatic adjustment of the speed of the carousel such that the number of teat cups which have not yet been removed at a first of the at least two checkpoint, but have been removed at a second of the at least tow checkpoints, is maximized.

Abstract: A valve assembly for a milking machine having teat cups. Each teat cup has a shell and a rubber lining, a pulsing chamber between the shell and the lining, and a pulsator for alternately pressurizing the pulsing chamber to atmospheric pressure and evacuating the pulsing chamber through a pulsation-forwarding line. The pressurization and evacuation are timed in accordance with a cross-section of a channel that conveys air into and out of the pulsing chamber. The valve assembly has a bypass channel associated with the air channel and a valve shut-off element in the bypass channel that opens when air is evacuated from the pulsing chamber and closes when pressurizing air enters the pulsing chamber.