abreast parlours

Monty

Member
Here you are @jimmer. We extended it to 10 from 6 when we moved here in 91 all cobbled together from various second hand bits then. The 3 original stalls on the right were replaced about 15 years ago and this spring I made new feed troughs for the far left stall from 5mm plate and red tractor has just failed us for the second stall so I'll have to do that soon.
Parlour 002.JPG
Parlour 003.JPG
red tractor 003.JPG
 
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Monty

Member
Before and after fitting rubber matting. Gets slippery in areas where milk is split unless regularly scrubbed but otherwise a real success. Grooved floor was getting very pitted beneath the udder area so had to fill and level first. Grooved concrete and twisting also no good for their feet. View attachment 65341 Also fitted cluster flushes which made cows jump at first they are fine with them now.
View attachment 65343

I do have a photo with cows in somewhere!

Just noticed those steps look very deep compared with ours and I see you've got plenty of height too. Our tall cows are rubbing their backs on the bars which isn't good.
 
Location
East Mids
Just noticed those steps look very deep compared with ours and I see you've got plenty of height too. Our tall cows are rubbing their backs on the bars which isn't good.
yes we get the odd one her back is touching the door release bar, luckily not yet the structural bars! I'm 5' 6" and struggle to release some of the doors unless I can stand on the step. Tallest cow in the herd is a Huddlestone Saruman heifer less than 3 yrs old hope she doesn't grow any more!

Steps look deep as they are cut away under the jars on most of the units too.
This parlour has been a great servant to us and we have moved in recent years from 5 to 6 to 7 gallon jars. Some of our jars incredibly difficult to read as they are doubled up one behind the other not side by side! We have a home for the jars for someone but will be looking to sell the Cotswold clusterflushes (x 6) as they are pretty new, any other bits that are any use to anyone would probably be free to a good home. It is really length of time milking high yielders, difficulty getting a relief milker that is prepared to work in an abreast and inc cow numbers a bit, plus we are now getting a lot of rotten stall work, that is moving us away from the abreast to a herringbone in a couple of months time. They are great for creating quiet cows and treating them as individuals.
 

newholland

Member
Location
England
115 x 8000lt cows through here twice a day. 4hrs a go and no chance of a relief milker!
Was 6 and in 1992 extended to 8. Changed to 7 gallon jars and raised stall work.
Feeding, acrs, cluster spray, vacume gates.
I have done 15 years in here so far.
Can't wait to drive an 18ton jcb through the lot, it will be the best day of my life. One day........
New dairy floor and outdoor 13,000 milk silo.
 

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Flossie

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Lancs
I learnt to milk in ma and pa's 6 stall abreast. Jars, manual milk release, no acrs. Never had a problem getting cows through the door, although there was an odd cow or two that had their set place, and if it wasn't available when they came in, would stand and wait until it was free :) They added another 2 stalls, which for some reason meant it turned into a two man parlour :rolleyes: They don't milk anymore!!
Relief milked for a neighbour who was in shippons.........now that was a backward step (n)
Relief milked for my cousin who had a 5/10 abreast with acrs. Compared to mum and dad's, this was the future:D
However, although I look back with a fondness of milking in an abreast, you'd struggle to get me back in one!
 

jimmer

Member
Location
East Devon
Just a though Jimmer, as a TFF favour........ if you gave us £50 cash per day, we would let you do a whole 8hrs per day pure abreast parlour milking and we would also provide cups of tea as part of the deal (Choc Biscuits on sundays) .....interested?

joking aside i would love to get back into an abreast

i have milked in a 12 which had eight in a line and two on each end with 22 inch steps feeding with coal shovels and auto milk release
a 6 with triplex and coal shovel feeding and 18 inch steps and a bloody exit door in the middle of the row
a 6 on the flat which worked in tandem to the above 6 filling the hoppers with feed manually and then coal shovels again
a 6 with triplexes which i extended to 8
and then there was the 8 that i made myself :love:


all i need is a good supply of coffee a wireless and cows , i miss not having brown shoulders and the sound of the chains chinking

40 an hour is fair slow , if i could halve your milking time would you still go on and put a new one in
 

S J H

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Bedfordshire
Ours was a flat floor 8:8 with fullwood direct line with acrs and meters. It was a GM with jars before. Manual gates with turn handle feeders.

If we'd carried on milking, I'd have lifted the roof to get a bit more air.

I can't find any photos of it now (n)
 
Just a though Jimmer, as a TFF favour........ if you ga
ve us £50 cash per day, we would let you do a whole 8hrs per day pure abreast parlour milking and we would also provide cups of tea as part of the deal (Choc Biscuits on sundays) .....interested?
That would be a good tourist attraction, as that is something that we would never see in NZ, most old walk through cowsheds have been demolished and replaced ,or converted to herringbones.
20140902_125342.jpg
 
Location
East Mids
That would be a good tourist attraction, as that is something that we would never see in NZ, most old walk through cowsheds have been demolished and replaced ,or converted to herringbones.View attachment 65524
We can't demolish ours it's in a listed building:eek:!!! It's next to our house which, FF, is older than the western settlement of NZ!!!! We had hoped we could fit our herringbone in it but it is just not big enough (it's not actually got straight walls along one side which doesn't help!!! The cows will exit the herringbone by going through it at the lower level.
 
We can't demolish ours it's in a listed building:eek:!!! It's next to our house which, FF, is older than the western settlement of NZ!!!! We had hoped we could fit our herringbone in it but it is just not big enough (it's not actually got straight walls along one side which doesn't help!!! The cows will exit the herringbone by going through it at the lower level.
Fair to say that there are very few inturnal or exturnal exit walk through cowsheds in operation, even less likely wth an exturnal plate cooler and separator, I saw one of the last ones still in operation in this area, but that was back in 1992, but that shed still exists , and if possible I'll get some pictures. As for the step up sheds, they are very rare, as most farms went from walk through, straight to herrringbone sheds in the 60's and then to rotarys from the early 70's.
As for the remains of earliest brick or stone building in NZ, dates from 1812 ish......
20140902_190900.jpg
 
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jimmer

Member
Location
East Devon
Fair to say that there are very few inturnal or exturnal exit walk through cowsheds in operation, even less likely wth an exturnal plate cooler and separator, I saw one of the last ones still in operation in this area, but that was back in 1992, but that shed still exists , and if possible I'll get some pictures. As for the step up sheds, they are very rare, as most farms went from walk through, straight to herrringbone sheds in the 60's and then to rotarys from the early 70's.
As for the remains of earliest brick or stone building in NZ, dates from 1812 ish......
View attachment 65532


massive like for the double herringbone ,never heard of or thought about that before
 
massive like for the double herringbone ,never heard of or thought about that before
Jimmer, there are two double herringbone sheds not far from here, some shed are half and half, others are 1/3rd ,2/3rds. Used basically where you have limited space, or short rows give better cow flow than long rows.Also that picture is from the ....1950's:)
Note, we call them Walk throughs rather than abreast parlours, as the latter has different connotations over here:facepalm::whistle::LOL:.
 

jimmer

Member
Location
East Devon
Jimmer, there are two double herringbone sheds not far from here, some shed are half and half, others are 1/3rd ,2/3rds. Used basically where you have limited space, or short rows give better cow flow than long rows.Also that picture is from the ....1950's:)
Note, we call them Walk throughs rather than abreast parlours, as the latter has different connotations over here:facepalm::whistle::LOL:.

are they still in use or mothballed

i like nothing more than a good stint in abreast parlours :cautious::playful:
 

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