28/30 point rotary parlours

[Irish NZ]

Evo farming are putting in 2 24/48 side by side. 700 cows. 350 an hour. Better than any rotary.

It on a fbt farm. Not many people would have the bottle to spend half a million on a parlour with the possibility of losing the farm in 10years. Our 40/80 does consistently 320 an hour.

I've talk about these side by side parlours before they may get to 350 but thats with 2 sh1t-hot people in each. Our large herringbone can still comfortably do 320 with a not very experienced guy and some one showing them the ropes. 2 good guys are relaxed at 360 for most of the year.

They talked about shutting 1 down at the shoulders but still easy to Chuck a 100 thru the big shed in a couple of mins. 2.5 rows you could nearly manage without washing down.

 

[farmer1989]

we have a 32 point internal auto cluster lift, adf system, acr we can milk with 1 person but you need to be fast and have eyes in the back of your head watching cows are indexing onto the parlor correctly alot depends on routine we pre spay wipe put clusters on adf then sprays when cluster removes but we also genus valiant dip after this because adf just dosnt do the a good enuf job also we find when maunual dipping you find more cows with mastitis and cows that maybe havent milked out properly
only thing we wish we could change is the size of the parlor to be most efficiant with a 32 parlour you need 2 and half ppl milking so if i could change anything i would have a 60 point parlor as when we have 3 ppl milking at times we can do a full rotation in 5 mins and every stall have a cow still miking so we have to stop and wait

 

[DairyGrazing]

All the small ones I know of are internal.

It on a fbt farm. Not many people would have the bottle to spend half a million on a parlour with the possibility of losing the farm in 10years. Our 40/80 does consistently 320 an hour.

I've talk about these side by side parlours before they may get to 350 but thats with 2 sh1t-hot people in each. Our large herringbone can still comfortably do 320 with a not very experienced guy and some one showing them the ropes. 2 good guys are relaxed at 360 for most of the year.

They talked about shutting 1 down at the shoulders but still easy to Chuck a 100 thru the big shed in a couple of mins. 2.5 rows you could nearly manage without washing down.

Sorry to go off topic but I think they've not put in ACRs and are having one man in each pit?

A man down the road has 36 point internal he said it worked well when they had 240 cows one man milking. Milked and washed down in 2 hours 15 mins but the cows outgrew the stalls. So did the farm in the end.

 

[Kiss]

Plenty of small rotary parlours in nz moth balled and a new bigger one built to the side!

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Plenty of small rotary parlours in nz moth balled and a new bigger one built to the side!

I was amazed by the number of abandoned parlours that weren't that old.

This is a photo of a farm I worked on in Southland. In the top right is a 30:60 that was put in in the late 90's when it was converted from a sheep farm. The new dairy was a 50 point rotary that went in in 2004 that is in the bottom left of the photo. This was what I milked in during 2007/08, it was a nice shed and they're were just fitting ACR's and metres as I was leaving.
The farm sold in 2012 and I see there is now a bigger newer rotary right along side it.

 

[Coo man]

50 point rotary is the minimum if going external, anything else is a waste of money

 

[Turboman]

50 point rotary is the minimum if going external, anything else is a waste of money

Surely it depends on cow numbers? Would a 50 point to milk 200 cows not be a bit of overkill? Just four rotations, you would spend a while connecting clusters to wash.

 

[Beef farmer]

Surely it depends on cow numbers? Would a 50 point to milk 200 cows not be a bit of overkill? Just four rotations, you would spend a while connecting clusters to wash.

A rotary for 200 is over kill.

 

[Turboman]

A rotary for 200 is over kill.

I disagree, perhaps a 50 point is overkill for 200 cows but a rotary is very efficient especially if you want bells and whistles. You can easily have 2,3,or even 4 different feeds being fed in a rotary, if you want to have a teat scrubber you only need 1 as opposed to 2 or 4 brushes in a big herringbone. Slow milkers go around twice, very easy to have adjustable height floor for the operator as its a smaller surface area he or she is standing on. A rotary seems to be a more efficient parlour.

 

[Coo man]

400 and up cows minimum for 50 point yes

 

[jimmer]

I was amazed by the number of abandoned parlours that weren't that old.
View attachment 465990
This is a photo of a farm I worked on in Southland. In the top right is a 30:60 that was put in in the late 90's when it was converted from a sheep farm. The new dairy was a 50 point rotary that went in in 2004 that is in the bottom left of the photo. This was what I milked in during 2007/08, it was a nice shed and they're were just fitting ACR's and metres as I was leaving.
The farm sold in 2012 and I see there is now a bigger newer rotary right along side it.
View attachment 466000

the kiwi's drive for efficiency is astounding compared to some of the efforts over here

 

[Beef farmer]

the kiwi's drive for efficiency is astounding compared to some of the efforts over here

But the cost of these parlours is frightening.

 

[jimmer]

But the cost of these parlours is frightening.

less than a new tractor which generates 100s times less income

 

[Beef farmer]

less than a new tractor which generates 100s times less income

50 point is 250k and the ground works are similar. So 500k. JB ordered a gold plated tractor for scraping?

 

[jimmer]

a parlour producing 10,000l a day at 25p x 365 is 912k
a tractor doing 24h a day at £30/hr x365 is 262k

3 x 150k tractors to generate same income

parlour runs for 6 hrs a day ?

tractor running for 6hrs a day ..........

 

[Beef farmer]

a parlour producing 10,000l a day at 25p x 365 is 912k
a tractor doing 24h a day at £30/hr x365 is 262k

3 x 150k tractors to generate same income

parlour runs for 6 hrs a day ?

tractor running for 6hrs a day ..........

I agree with you 100%. But still to mothball 2 parlours like pictured above takes a bit of doing.

 

[FonterraFarmer]

Plenty of small rotary parlours in nz moth balled and a new bigger one built to the side!

But plenty of 40 year old little rotaries still going too, know of at least 4 just locally.

 

[Headless chicken]

One of the first around here just been finished with a hosier I believe. Had adf added and updated over the years. Think there was a unit in carms with 4 of them. I know 2 have been replaced one with a vaccar and they wished they had kept the old one!

 

[Richard vdv]

You need auto I'd for sure so retained cows can go around again and not be fed again if your feeding. Retention bars don't pick up on everything though. They won't know if a quarter hasn't been milked properly or if you missed a mastitis when putting the unit on. You can put more gimmicks on the parlour but then why not have a bigger parlour with no tech and milk with 2. If it's a one man I would go internal.

I'm thinking 30 stall internal. Any advice

 

[dolf_lundgren]

But the cost of these parlours is frightening.

It does seem overkill but then you consider that they have virtually no other infrastructure to put in .If you or I wanted to go from 200-500-1000 cows we would need to build massive sheds, slurry stores and silage pits, probably at least 3 times the costs of simply putting in a bigger parlour, so no wonder they are more bullish in terms of growing.

When I say, you or I, are you not from down in the South West where dairy farming easy and you dont need sheds? so maybe just me!