Flies In The Parlour

[Paulyd]

What are people doing to help reduce flies in the parlour? most afternoon milkings at the moment are hideous and milking time is like a war zone.
Got 2 large fans going and using fly spray but it not helping whatsoever.
Thinking of setting up misters but a lot if flies will still cling to the underside of the cows.
Any other things I could try or are these methods pretty much the only options?
Cheers

 

[Water Wheel]

Water curtain at entrance.( Basic spray nozzles on alkathene pipe mains water pressure.)
Electric fly spray fogger in covered collecting yard, worked by pull cord in pit. Quick bust before each row comes in.
Let both sides in before starting , use fly spray and get out for a few minutes, repeat if needed before starting.
Make sure spray is effective, some newer water based ones take far too long to knock flies down, though may be safer than the older oil based.
Treat cows with pour on earlier in season next year.

 

[Farmer Keith]

Been a bit of a nightmare here this time to and I rarely get trouble in this parlour. I put pour on earlier in the season but it must of worn off. Took me over 3 hours to milk on Thursday. It’s a two man job in the afternoons really. Fortunately the time is nearly over

 

[lazy farmer]

Where are they breeding is there nothing you c,and do to help prevent them getting out of hand ?

 

[Ducati899]

Never had a year so bad for flies here,they’ve just started to tail off now though thank god

 

[pappuller]

Never had a year so bad for flies here,they’ve just started to tail off now though thank god

Sounds like you've got lazys share [emoji23]

 

[Happy hillbily]

August was horrible here, hated milking in the afternoons, even the cows didnt want to come in for milking, made the cows stand for an hour in the collecting yard so the flys would fill their bellies on the cows before milking.
Had a couple of cool days at the turn of the month, and most of them have gone .
Here the cows get spot on every 5-6 weeks from early may, i have fly tape running the length of the parlour which catches hundereds of flys each day, tried the red top fly catcher last year, but was unimpressed with it.

 

[Sparkymark]

Bad here too. Im actually looking forward to some wintry weather so that they buggar off!

 

[Monty]

Strange. Flies haven't been bad at all this year here. Very few clusters kicked of compared to normal. Just 1 lot of pour on in August when they were becoming a nuisance. Milking at 5pm for most of the summer but started at 6pm on hot days. Cows on the yard for 1/2 an hour before milking, a fly string in the parlour and another in the calf pens that both catch quite a few.

Girlfriend reckons you can buy male GM wasps that have been bred with no sting and are sterile. They eat fly eggs and when they die off you buy a new batch in. Interesting concept

 

[Kiss]

Depending how low your parlor roof is a product called twenty one is fantastic sprayed on also good around calf housing you’ll literally see piles of flies

 

[Cowlife]

I used to put swish on roof and walls of calf shed etc. Def see lots of dead flies next day

 

[Beef farmer]

Depending how low your parlor roof is a product called twenty one is fantastic sprayed on also good around calf housing you’ll literally see piles of flies

That looks intresting. Might try it. Reviews are good

 

[Blue.]

Local pest control contractor sprays the shed roofs,everyone that uses him swears by it.

Agricultural Pest Control - Assured Environmental

 

[Kiss]

That looks intresting. Might try it. Reviews are good

 

[Beef farmer]

You spray or paint on?

 

[Kiss]

That looks intresting. Might try it. Reviews are good

You spray or paint on?

Spray with a knapsack or hoselock hand pump

 

[MattR]

Are these things any good?

 

[Agrispeed]

Are these things any good?

Wouldn't want one unnattended. We have one in a kitchen here and it frequently smokes when you get a good catch. The last one we had caught fire!

They are also surprisingly noisy and I suspect would make the cows a bit jumpy. Probably quite a high risk of stray voltage and I don't know how well they would stand a damp environment.

 

[Blue.]

Are these things any good?

Had one years ago,all it got was midges.

 

[Sparkymark]

We set up this simple fly curtain at our parlour entrance yesterday. Didn’t stop them all but definitely reduced them.
All it is alkathene pipe with holes drilled then ambic nozzles screwed in.
Plenty of mist with just bore hole pressure.