Our new(ish) parlour

Tim G

Member

Livestock Farmer

Location

Wormingford, Essex

• Apr 12, 2021

• #221

My friend found me a feed bin on a farm he milk records on, surplus to requirements and needing some repairs but too cheap to say no to. Took the legs off and dropped it on the trailer to get it home. Silicone, some patches cut from an old galv sheet, a few pop rivets and a bit of paint, hopefully good to go once I get the bottom cone back in. Also got some lengths of flexi auger to take it through to the parlour.

 

S

som farmer

Member

Livestock Farmer

Location

somerset

• Apr 12, 2021

• #222

Personalised quad bike ?

 

serf

Member

Location

warwickshire

• Apr 12, 2021

• #223

You will be milking 100 cows before the years out at this rate

 

Tim G

Member

Livestock Farmer

Location

Wormingford, Essex

• Apr 13, 2021

• #224

serf said:

You will be milking 100 cows before the years out at this rate

Click to expand...

If only I could sell the milk from a hundred cows......

 

serf

Member

Location

warwickshire

• Apr 13, 2021

• #225

Tim G said:

If only I could sell the milk from a hundred cows......

Click to expand...

I think Your better off as you are , outside of the hamsters wheel, not in it .....

 

U

upnortheast

Member

Livestock Farmer

Location

Northumberland

• Apr 13, 2021

• #226

Tim G said:

If only I could sell the milk from a hundred cows

Click to expand...

Aye producing the milk is the easy bit, Finding customers willing to pay a reasonable price is a bit more tricky

 

Last edited: Apr 13, 2021

Tim G

Member

Livestock Farmer

Location

Wormingford, Essex

• Aug 25, 2021

• #227

Bit more work done on the bulk tank room. I'd painted the walls and got lots of paint on the floor so I decided to paint the floor, managing to get plenty of paint on the walls.......
Still, looking tidy I think.

 

B

BobTheSmallholder

Member

Mixed Farmer

Location

Angus

• Aug 26, 2021

• #228

Tim G said:

View attachment 981862
Bit more work done on the bulk tank room. I'd painted the walls and got lots of paint on the floor so I decided to paint the floor, managing to get plenty of paint on the walls.......
Still, looking tidy I think.

Click to expand...

Looking really good, a coat of paint can hide many sins!

 

Tim G

Member

Livestock Farmer

Location

Wormingford, Essex

• Aug 26, 2021

• #229

Tank in, got to make some legs to level it up on the sloping floor.

 

serf

Member

Location

warwickshire

• Oct 17, 2021

• #230

How's the milk job going , are you managing to shift all the the milk ok raw, how many are you milking now ?

Tim G said:

View attachment 982020
Tank in, got to make some legs to level it up on the sloping floor.

Click to expand...

 

Tim G

Member

Livestock Farmer

Location

Wormingford, Essex

• Oct 18, 2021

• #231

serf said:

How's the milk job going , are you managing to shift all the the milk ok raw, how many are you milking now ?

Click to expand...

Bit up and down to be honest.
Demand has dropped off since the peaks of lockdown which was to be expected. We do keep getting new customers though, what I think of as better class of customer, ie those that want raw milk and happy to come for it rather than those that just want milk and then disappear when they can get it from the supermarket again. The milkman that take it to deliver have seen a similar downturn in custom as well, for all milk, not just ours.
We've also had 5 weeks of not being able to sell milk, partly due to a stand in inspector who has a grude. But we will move on from that.......

 

U

upnortheast

Member

Livestock Farmer

Location

Northumberland

• Oct 18, 2021

• #232

Tim G said:

We've also had 5 weeks of not being able to sell milk, partly due to a stand in inspector who has a grude. But we will move on from that.......

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That`s crap.
I do dispair at the standard of some of the staff that local councils employ.

Do you pasterurise any?

 

Tim G

Member

Livestock Farmer

Location

Wormingford, Essex

• Oct 18, 2021

• #233

upnortheast said:

That`s crap.
I do dispair at the standard of some of the staff that local councils employ.

Do you pasterurise any?

Click to expand...

This 'inspector' caused trouble before, or at least tried to. Ended up looking silly in front of several people and annoying a few colleagues too, so probably took great delight in telling us to stop selling with a threat of shutting us down.
Any how, we move on. Best not to think of the thousands of pounds worth of milk we couldn't sell.
Not pasteurising any at the moment but planning to, just need to work out what bits I'll need aside from a pasteuriser and how to fit everything in.

 

serf

Member

Location

warwickshire

• Oct 18, 2021

• #234

Tim G said:

Bit up and down to be honest.
Demand has dropped off since the peaks of lockdown which was to be expected. We do keep getting new customers though, what I think of as better class of customer, ie those that want raw milk and happy to come for it rather than those that just want milk and then disappear when they can get it from the supermarket again. The milkman that take it to deliver have seen a similar downturn in custom as well, for all milk, not just ours.
We've also had 5 weeks of not being able to sell milk, partly due to a stand in inspector who has a grude. But we will move on from that.......

Click to expand...

That's a shame , was hoping the job would come right for you after all the effort of getting parlour ect set up ,
I guess the public can be fickle and unreliable when it comes to these things .

Hope you can get back on track with it when you kick the inspector into gear , I recon the idea is great if you can get a reliable outlet .

There's vending machine milk near us run alongside main bulk tank pickup and they seem to shift a bit, tastes so much better than the shop stuff!

 

Tim G

Member

Livestock Farmer

Location

Wormingford, Essex

• Oct 18, 2021

• #235

We've been selling again for about two weeks now so picking up again now. Unfortunately the bills keep coming in, the cows still need milking and feeding, some customers just think we turn them off for 5 weeks. And if they don't come for milk, they don't pick up a pack of sausages or joint of beef while they are here so it's a bit of a double whammy.
The joys of raw milk........

 

dinderleat

Member

Location

Wells

• Oct 20, 2021

• #236

Tim G said:

We've been selling again for about two weeks now so picking up again now. Unfortunately the bills keep coming in, the cows still need milking and feeding, some customers just think we turn them off for 5 weeks. And if they don't come for milk, they don't pick up a pack of sausages or joint of beef while they are here so it's a bit of a double whammy.
The joys of raw milk........

Click to expand...

Have you got the ability to process into other products if you can’t sell for 5 weeks

 

Tim G

Member

Livestock Farmer

Location

Wormingford, Essex

• Nov 26, 2021

• #237

An early Christmas present arrived this morning. Now need a bit of creative thinking.....

 

O

oldgranny

New Member

• Nov 26, 2021

• #238

Well done. And you are giving others farmers the faith in what they are thinking or doing the confidence. If we could see more posts like this WE will get through the next lot of changes DEFRA have decided we need to do.

 

Tim G

Member

Livestock Farmer

Location

Wormingford, Essex

• Nov 26, 2021

• #239

@Real cool or anyone else know how these controllers wire up? The cables have been chopped off the back but the colours are different to the feeder motors.

 

R

Real cool

Member

• Nov 26, 2021

• #240

Take the front off and picture what’s inside