Reducing costs on a dairy farm-electric Bill

[HasthorpeGrange]

Since coming to work at home I have tried to see where we can reduce costs. Being in the sainsburys group on cost of production it was flagged up we are above average on electric and water. The water is being sorted as we are in the process of getting a bore hole, awaiting quotes at the minute. Feed has been reduced by switching from a Bocm intermix to a soya and rape meal blend saving around £90 a day. Now thinking about the electric cost, not convinced on wind turbines or solar panels so how can we just reduce the amount used? Thanks in advance

 

[farmer on a bike]

Varivac and heat recovery knocked our bill down by 25%.

 

[Splitpin]

Have you got econony7. Putting as much on timeswitches as possible will help. Cooling your milk with the new borehole water maybe an option as well.

 

[Sid]

Boreholecan equal
UV treatment
Water softner
Iron filter.
Mains maybe cheap in the long run?

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Boreholecan equal
UV treatment
Water softner
Iron filter.
Mains maybe cheap in the long run?

Very very rarely will the treatment of bore hole / spring water come anywhere near the cost of mains water.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

In general electric costs on a dairy farm are a fairly equal 3 way split between water heating, milk cooling and everything else.

I say it on here all the time but most dairy farms use way to much hot water. Try dropping the odd evening hot wash for a cold peracetic rinse, then keep a eye on bactoscans while you do fewer and fewer hot washes.

At the moment I hot wash 3 mornings a week because bf is 7.5+ and everything starts to choke up. Most of the season with bf around 5.8 I just do 1 hot wash a week

 

[farmerste]

use as much electricity on the cheap rate if your on economy 7 (i 've got mine up to 50% night rate and 50% day rate now by using timers) and as cows 'n grass says just do a hot wash once a day, shouldnt make any difference to your bactoscans but will save you a chunk off your leccy bill

 

[lazy farmer]

get multiple quotes the next time the contract is due. make sure you know when its due as there is still much underhandedness when it comes to renewals.
we have the lights on timers so they are off between midnight and 5am. am not convincied by the research into light and milk production.
we have solar and looking at current FITs rates I would be suggesting a 10% return is still perfectly achievable.
wind would be less I would suggest.
we also have varivac on the parlour and the milk pump + heat recovery which means we tend to do 2 hot washes a day even though we only pay for one!
If you were to include the FITs and export payments we current have a minus figure for electricity usage

 

[The Agrarian]

...the savings of which are offset by the investment cost in solar, heat recovery and new motors!

I agree with what you have done though. My system is much the same as that.

 

[lazy farmer]

return on the solar is 16% on. Much happier getting a return on investment rather than relying on depreciation
everything else is harder to work out.but I know that buying the varivacs before the subsidies came in was a good move! cost of them now bares no relation to what we paid for them back then!(we only bought add on boxes not shiny new pumps)

 

[early riser]

Just do one hot wash per day here, Bacto under 10.

Make your own mind up from that!

 

[HasthorpeGrange]

About three years ago we had a new boiler put in which works only on a night so on a lower tariff
Shall speak with dad see what he thinks, thanks

 

[Princess Pooper]

One or more plate coolers (make sure you use the water though)
Maximise Economy 7 - we used to be 2/3 night rate!
EOD collection if you can
Seek out the best contract
Is the farmhouse electricity included? Ours is all on one meter so make sure you split something off for that if you are in the same situation.
Borehole should sort your water, but high pressure parlour washing can be a big user.

 

[multi power]

Turn lights off when not needed. I can't belive how many lights I see left on during daylight etc

 

[Yale]

LED lights are far more efficient.

 

[HasthorpeGrange]

So how does the Varivac work? Heard of it before but other people seem to think it doesn't really work that much. We extended the parlour last year so now have to motors on the pump so would it work still?
This year we put in a new ice builder as the old one packed in so don't think a heat exchange will be an option for a bit, but thanks for the suggestion

Has anyone else changed anything that they have seen a real saving on? For example we changed the concentrates from an inter mix to a soya rape meal and seen a saving
Anyone else seen anything similar? Could be good for everyone to share there money saving experiences

 

[sjt01]

We have had a GEA variable vacuum pump for several years now. Most of the time it is doing less than half speed, so a good saving in electricity, also wear and tear, and especially noise.

 

[HasthorpeGrange]

Is it a lot quieter? Ours is really loud

 

[Exfarmer]

Lights at night mean 15% more milk and less damaged teats.
Wish you had posted a few weeks ago as a solar array could have saved quite a bit.

 

[Beef farmer]

Lights at night mean 15% more milk and less damaged teats.
Wish you had posted a few weeks ago as a solar array could have saved quite a bit.

15% more milk? Marginal litres.