When I visited the States a few years ago I saw one unit milking 800 cows milking them in their stanchions. Each milk had their own wooden seat bottom and a pogo stick spring attached the bottom and they work their way up the line in relative comfort
I wondered how come all the cows stood there with no chains , but then I skipped to the end and saw all the cows were in self locking yokes , good idea again ,saves a lot of time not chaining them up but when ever I tried not chaining them up something would eventually spook them and all chaos would break out with cows and units everywhere ! Starting to get all nostalgic watching this , think I need to go and do a milking in my brother in laws parlour again , usually 20 minutes is enough to get all stupid ideas about conventional milking out of my head !
Don't think I'll get nostalgic about milking in an abreast, but you certainly get to know the cows better. No we didn't have seats either, but our standings are higher so not so far to bend down. Thought he'd never get round to putting that unit on the 3rd jersey on the left. Can't see the point in getting a cow in unless you are going to be able to put the unit on pretty soon, only gives her more time to cr*p.Was going to comment it's too many cows for 1 in an abreast but then the sidekick came in to help out.
2 here in the village still going. That looks a lovely environment and his belly is not as big as mine!! Bit of exercise never killed anyone. Reminds me of when I left school, although chips bit about skipping putting the chains on applies to me too.....
That place is spotless! Need to be sure she doesn't give a kick if your sitting! I used to milk in a byre for an uncle but that seems a big step forward in comparison to it
Nice to see but quite painful to watch, 3mins and only the second cluster being put on. I'm sure there is a system to it but couldn't figure it out! Never milked in one if these. As mentioned very good cows, also quiet.
Seen in Austria? where they had a one legged stool strapped to their bottom. Always there when they sat down.
i designed and built my own 8 abreast in 2002 , no feeding, open backed to the collecting yard , 18 inch step and put 120 cows through it , i would do it all again tomorrow for 120 cows if i had to do it on a budget never needed or had time to sit down
What's it like getting a heifer to step up there and behave the first couple of times? I can just picture how some of mine would react.
Cows aren't too bad about going up steps it's down they don't like. We used to use a gate to channel the heifers up the step, some a bit problematic but you just need patience. Unlike the one in the video, we fed in parlour so once you've got them up on the first occasion they remember pretty quick they got some feed and will do it again. Remember you're mainly small herds so not thousands of heifers either, if you don't have more than 2 or 3 first timers in a milking it makes the job easier. We would milk the heifer completely alone the first few times so you can keep an eye on her and also so she is not wandering around the parlour sticking her head under the others and upsetting them while she works out where to go.
hour and a half in the summer with no routine , a bit longer if wiping in the winter you have to remember i would open the front gate and have to pull it back shut fair quick after her because the next cow was usually up her arse , no acrs , just worked from one end to the other , 6000l ,grazed , zero grazed , and tmr in the winter
