Hauling your own milk

I think it’s a great idea. Especially as your bactoscan is never a problem......
Refer to above
Not really. Only 13600 litres a day. Medium sized farm these days

Fastrac 4220 using ball & spoon hitch and not much in the way of hills or long uphill/down dale drags but needs a lot of thinking through yet.

Just cogitating
Dont the neighbours already hate your tractor movements
 

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
Not really. Only 13600 litres a day. Medium sized farm these days

Fastrac 4220 using ball & spoon hitch and not much in the way of hills or long uphill/down dale drags but needs a lot of thinking through yet.

Just cogitating

If the trailers has a low tare you'd just about be legal with that amount if you went on every day collection?
The problem I see from the buyers point of view, is if you do it, especially with a tractor and trailer then a lot of others are going to get ideas to. I think it would end up causing problems.
 

Blue.

Member
Livestock Farmer
Not really. Only 13600 litres a day. Medium sized farm these days

Fastrac 4220 using ball & spoon hitch and not much in the way of hills or long uphill/down dale drags but needs a lot of thinking through yet.

Just cogitating
Why ball and spoon?
I've a 16000 litre tanker on a normal ring hitch,I've never once thought it needed something different.
Ball and spoon will just make hard work when the fastcrap breaks down.
 

mixed farm

Member
Rick, I enjoy your posts and admire all you've done but my question is when is enough enough? If ye can't make serious money off 5million litres it's time to pack it in. 50k is a lot of money but with your turnover, and with tax is only worth 25k, so why would you bother? Just my thoughts.
 

Blue.

Member
Livestock Farmer
Safer I would say and probably become the standard in a few years once over a certain weight ?
I’ll bother about it when it happens,local dairy used to tow a dolly tanker round,I’d prefer weight on the hitch though.

Trouble is your going to need a tank with towards 19k litre capacity to allow for fluctuations,or are you dead level production?
 

Bald Rick

Moderator
Livestock Farmer
Location
Anglesey
I’ll bother about it when it happens,local dairy used to tow a dolly tanker round,I’d prefer weight on the hitch though.

Trouble is your going to need a tank with towards 19k litre capacity to allow for fluctuations,or are you dead level production?

Dolly would be better I agree through a ring then there would be alternative tractor options
Production on an upward curve. High percentage of heifers in the herd this year

I would guess we will let the dairy take the strain of collection but it could remain an option.
Never say never
 

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
I’ll bother about it when it happens,local dairy used to tow a dolly tanker round,I’d prefer weight on the hitch though.

Trouble is your going to need a tank with towards 19k litre capacity to allow for fluctuations,or are you dead level production?

Not legal at that weight though is it?
I know I keep banging on about it but if you're making a commercial gain by running bent your out of order. The rules might be bo**ocks but those that are sticking by them are losing out. Nothing wrong with hauling it yourself as long as everyone's on a level playing field.

I regularly used to have to leave 500 litres behind out of a 30,000 litre pick up because the pump cut out at legal weight. A right pain but where do you draw the line?
 

Blue.

Member
Livestock Farmer
Not legal at that weight though is it?
I know I keep banging on about it but if you're making a commercial gain by running bent your out of order. The rules might be bo**ocks but those that are sticking by them are losing out. Nothing wrong with hauling it yourself as long as everyone's on a level playing field.

I regularly used to have to leave 500 litres behind out of a 30,000 litre pick up because the pump cut out at legal weight. A right pain but where do you draw the line?
Legality always gets in the way!

I’d favour a hooklift 8 wheeler but they would only have a payload of 16000kg depending on tank weight,If for any reason it broke down you’d get someone else in to move it or tow it with a tractor hooklift.
 

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
Legality always gets in the way!

I’d favour a hooklift 8 wheeler but they would only have a payload of 16000kg depending on tank weight,If for any reason it broke down you’d get someone else in to move it or tow it with a tractor hooklift.

Yep they're a pain. The worst one was when a farmer was waiting patiently (ish) for you to empty the vat so they could wash it and start milking, you got down to the last 3 or 400 litres and the pump said 'no'.
Even worse if you were already pick up 2 or 3 of a split.
 

Agrispeed

Member
Location
Cornwall
Yep they're a pain. The worst one was when a farmer was waiting patiently (ish) for you to empty the vat so they could wash it and start milking, you got down to the last 3 or 400 litres and the pump said 'no'.
Even worse if you were already pick up 2 or 3 of a split.

Can't you just smash the button to overfill? The wagons and drags we have here can go 3-400l overfull in both bodies, and you can override the system until it comes out the CIP lines...

A artic unit would be the best option I think, you can dolly tow or run your own unit, and there short bodies around, and plenty of backup if you need it with tractor units, in fact you could probably get a haulage company to supply a tractor and driver reasonably cheaply if it was regular work. I guess you would need MOT and possibly CPC as a haulage operator though?

Mind you the pump, meter and CIP side of tanker stuff seems to go wrong often enough.
 

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
Can't you just smash the button to overfill? The wagons and drags we have here can go 3-400l overfull in both bodies, and you can override the system until it comes out the CIP lines...

A artic unit would be the best option I think, you can dolly tow or run your own unit, and there short bodies around, and plenty of backup if you need it with tractor units, in fact you could probably get a haulage company to supply a tractor and driver reasonably cheaply if it was regular work. I guess you would need MOT and possibly CPC as a haulage operator though?

Mind you the pump, meter and CIP side of tanker stuff seems to go wrong often enough.

Used to be able to, things tightened up more and more and the dispatchers and bosses could see real time what you were doing. Eventually they changed the pumps so you couldn't override more than 1 or 2 hundred litres
If you're going to leave some you always want to leave enough so it reaches the paddle in the silo, so you've got to be sure you can get it all on.
Things are very strict with that company and the transport cops regularly stop and weigh trucks, loads can be audited etc.
 

Dead Rabbits

Member
Location
'Merica
Tractor and drawbar hauling 6 miles. Apparently all (???) we need is DFCA (or summat like that) accreditation - which is the haulier "Red Tractor" scheme.
We will shortly be sending 5m litres plus/yr so if the creamery are charging even 1ppl, that's £50k alone in haulage but averaged across their milk pool, it would be more like 2ppl
Not to be sniffed at

We pay a lot for hauling. The deal our hauler has is pretty sweet from a trucking industry perspective. I believe we would be better off hauling our own, but have enough problems as it is. Trucks and used trailers are surprisingly affordable.

Finding COMPETENT drivers, repairs/maintenance to stay on top of etc takes the fun out of it. Also I remember how much I hate driving trucks after about 2 days of it.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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