New milking parlours

[JRobinson]

Hi all,

I am from a family dairy farm milking 350 cows in Northern Ireland and have just completed my first year at Harper Adams University, studying Agriculture with Farm Business Management. To bridge the gap between the end of term and the start of harvest I am arranging to see a few newly installed parlours, as my 19 year old 20/40 Gascoigne at home has seen better days and will need replacing when I graduate.

I have been to see several GEA Milfos and Westfalia rotaries, and have arranged to see a Waikato rotary as well. I was wondering if anyone out there had a recently installed Dairymaster or DeLaval parlour in England or Wales that they wouldn't mind letting me look around? Specifically either a rotary or a rapid exit, as I have very little experience with rapid exits.

Bearing in mind the current situation in Norfolk, I would be mindful of biosecurity requirements, and have not brought any of my overalls or wellies from home with me.

Thank you.

 

[crashbox]

What cow type?

I've heard of people banging through 350/hr with two in the pit with a well set up herringbone...

Spring calvers mind.

 

[Old apprentice]

Robots reports of very



high yealds three and a half milking per day

 

[Conrod96]

We’ve a 12 year old dairy master and it’s as good now as when it went in tbh.
Putting 420 through it in a couple of hours at the minute, thought your parlour would still be capable for a few years yet

 

[Sandpit Farm]

I've used this a few times. https://ahdb.org.uk/parlour-wizard

Simplest is often the best. I know folks with both of what you are looking at. One pal runs 300 through a very simple DairyMaster (standard parlour 16/16). He swears by it. It is simple but brand new so they can usually fix it, the cow flow works so there is no rapid exit. Milking around 2hrs. Another friend has a Westfalia rapid exit 24/48 and runs 500 cows through in 2hrs30. 3x per day milking though, definitely worth running through the calculator above as anything other than a swingover will be 2 people in the parlour and that needs to be resourced.

Presumably you want to find parlours close to Harper to have a look?

 

[onesiedale]

don't let your Harper Course convince you that a rotary is the answer for 350-400 cows.
Simple can often be the best. As said above^^ cow flow is key to throughput . It is not so much the parlour, but often, more of what is around the parlour that makes milking easy

 

[JRobinson]

What cow type?

I've heard of people banging through 350/hr with two in the pit with a well set up herringbone...

Spring calvers mind.

Friesians calving all year round, trying to keep the size down for full time grazing. Most we've managed is about 140/hr with 2 in the pit.

 

[JRobinson]

We’ve a 12 year old dairy master and it’s as good now as when it went in tbh.
Putting 420 through it in a couple of hours at the minute, thought your parlour would still be capable for a few years yet

A lot of the components have been replaced with Milfos bits now when we fitted feed-to-yield, so as far as the bare parlour goes I reckon it would last a decent amount of time yet. However spending that much time in the parlour is wearing my father down, and we struggle to get anyone to milk for us as it is that difficult to start, stop and wash the parlour. We would love something that we can let a relief milker just press the 'go button' on, and let my dad start to take a bit of a step back.

We've found with the staggered rump rail that the first calvers have too much room, which makes it easy for them to kick the clusters off. As well as that, the fibreglass troughs are an absolute pain.

At the end of the day, for a job that happens 2 or 3 times a day, every day, it shouldn't take up such a large portion of time in my opinion.

 

[JRobinson]

I've used this a few times. https://ahdb.org.uk/parlour-wizard

Simplest is often the best. I know folks with both of what you are looking at. One pal runs 300 through a very simple DairyMaster (standard parlour 16/16). He swears by it. It is simple but brand new so they can usually fix it, the cow flow works so there is no rapid exit. Milking around 2hrs. Another friend has a Westfalia rapid exit 24/48 and runs 500 cows through in 2hrs30. 3x per day milking though, definitely worth running through the calculator above as anything other than a swingover will be 2 people in the parlour and that needs to be resourced.

Presumably you want to find parlours close to Harper to have a look?

Fascinating, thank you for the link, will definitely be having a play around with that.

I see what you mean, might be nice telling people about your big fancy new parlour but when it's 15 years old and needs a technician out twice a week to keep it running you would wonder if it was worth all the cost. I think it's always a compromise between this initial costs and labour, but we don't want to have more than 2 people needed in the parlour.

I'm not too worried about travelling through a few counties, even if I end up not going down this route, it is nice to see other setups and be able to come up with new ideas and hear different experiences.

 

[bigw]

Would cutting numbers to ease the current milking time be an option? The cost of a new dairy will have spiked considerably in the last 6 months.

 

[In the pit]

A rotary for that number is the way to go to keep the hours down you spend in a parlour

 

[JRobinson]

Would cutting numbers to ease the current milking time be an option? The cost of a new dairy will have spiked considerably in the last 6 months.

It's definitely a consideration, cutting down and having to rely less on rented ground and becoming a bit less labour intensive. However for the time being we'd like to keep numbers up, as we feel there may be some time in the future where the NI government will order a decrease in herd size, which we wouldn't want to happen if we had already downsized.

 

[Thompyd]

It's definitely a consideration, cutting down and having to rely less on rented ground and becoming a bit less labour intensive. However for the time being we'd like to keep numbers up, as we feel there may be some time in the future where the NI government will order a decrease in herd size, which we wouldn't want to happen if we had already downsized.

Do your maths on the downsizing. Less rented ground, less running around to rented ground, quicker milkings, reduced labour. If it's only you and your Dad taking a wage and theres no major loans to meet downsizing is definitely a good option. A revamped parlour with an extension to say 24/48 would leave it as a 2 man parlour (1 would be no problem at grazing) for say 250/300 cows. Your young but could have a family in 10 years time. You don't want to be tied to the place when that comes around or have a big loan to meet which forces you to increase cow numbers/labour/stress.

 

[J B]

Family near me have recently fitted a big rotary.
Youngest daughter is/was (?) at Harper
Maybe you already know this? Or PM me if not

 

[Holsteinfriesian90]

Lots of talk about parlours on here lately.

 

[In the pit]

Milk price high so all that money is burning a hole in there pocket

 

[Farmer Keith]

Milk price high so all that money is burning a hole in there pocket

Haha and yet I read a comment on Facebook today where a guy needed 70ppl to make some money.

 

[In the pit]

Haha and yet I read a comment on Facebook today where a guy needed 70ppl to make some money.

Probaly needs to sell up then

 

[Llmmm]

Hi all,

I am from a family dairy farm milking 350 cows in Northern Ireland and have just completed my first year at Harper Adams University, studying Agriculture with Farm Business Management. To bridge the gap between the end of term and the start of harvest I am arranging to see a few newly installed parlours, as my 19 year old 20/40 Gascoigne at home has seen better days and will need replacing when I graduate.

I have been to see several GEA Milfos and Westfalia rotaries, and have arranged to see a Waikato rotary as well. I was wondering if anyone out there had a recently installed Dairymaster or DeLaval parlour in England or Wales that they wouldn't mind letting me look around? Specifically either a rotary or a rapid exit, as I have very little experience with rapid exits.

Bearing in mind the current situation in Norfolk, I would be mindful of biosecurity requirements, and have not brought any of my overalls or wellies from home with me.

Thank you.

The biggest and simplest way to speed up milking is cow milking speed.Nz bred animals are renowned for this

 

[Wee Willy]

The biggest and simplest way to speed up milking is cow milking speed.Nz bred animals are renowned for this

Always found fast milking cows prone to leaking and always take mastitis.