A problem of the currently available milking technology is that the teat-end milking vacuum always falls as the milk flow increases. A recently developed unit for the quarter individual control of the teat-end vacuum therefore constitutes the focus of this paper, which compares the vacuum behaviour at the teat end of the cow in the Multilactor® milking system with and without a control unit. As a result, the following differences with and without a control unit were observed: In low-flow milking stages, the milking vacuum is set to 8 kPa (release) and 17.5 kPa (suction) with a control unit in both pulse-cycle phases. By contrast, the milking vacuum reaches values of 29 kPa (release) and 33.5 kPa (suction) without a control unit. In high-flow milking phases, the milking vacuum remains relatively high at approximately 31 kPa, in both settings, with and without using the control unit. That allows a speedy and udder-tissue-friendly milking process. Copyright © (2014) by the American Society of Agricultural & Biological Engineers All rights reserved.