New palour the best bits

[Clay52]

On the other hand it's were you monies made,I've never once regretted spending on my parlour.

Agree but don't need an expensive parlour to make milk. Not to mention the more complicated the higher running cost and more to go wrong.

 

[farmboy]

On the other hand it's were you monies made,I've never once regretted spending on my parlour.

Normally find farmers who milk their ow cows don't mind spending on a parlour!

 

[Tarw Coch]

If building a new parlour build it as big as you possibly can. A lot of stuff can be easily added at a later date but extra building work is a pain. I milk in a 16:32 but the building work and rump rail has been put in for a 20:40 so extending it can easily be done between milkings with minimal inconvenience.

 

[Clay52]

Normally find farmers who milk their ow cows don't mind spending on a parlour!

On our farm milking is the easiest job on the farm. Per hour the milkers get paid over twice what I do. I would take milking any day of the week and I actually might.

 

[Agrispeed]

Don't forget to get the pit depth and width right. Many parlours are spoilt by being too shallow, too wide/narrow or with the wrong camber in.

Generally the narrower the pit the quicker it is to swing units, but it can get messier, too narrow and it can be a pain to walk though, ideally you want it so that you are only taking one or two steps and pivoting at the same time.

I was told to measure the pivot point of the main milker when they are wearing boots and work out the depth of the pit from that, which normally ends up at about 950mm, loads of parlours are specced to 850mm for some reason which is far too low, especially with 10mm of mat on top!

The parlour should be sloped uphill to the exit and it should be cambered away from the pit, to encourage cows to walk out and to push against the rump rails. The pit should be the same, with a crest in the middle, so you are leaning towards the cows. This means the receiver ends up at the back of the pit, which often uses more milk line so some will spec this back to front to save money.

 

[Tarw Coch]

Don't forget to get the pit depth and width right. Many parlours are spoilt by being too shallow, too wide/narrow or with the wrong camber in.

Generally the narrower the pit the quicker it is to swing units, but it can get messier, too narrow and it can be a pain to walk though, ideally you want it so that you are only taking one or two steps and pivoting at the same time.

I was told to measure the pivot point of the main milker when they are wearing boots and work out the depth of the pit from that, which normally ends up at about 950mm, loads of parlours are specced to 850mm for some reason which is far too low, especially with 10mm of mat on top!

The parlour should be sloped uphill to the exit and it should be cambered away from the pit, to encourage cows to walk out and to push against the rump rails. The pit should be the same, with a crest in the middle, so you are leaning towards the cows. This means the receiver ends up at the back of the pit, which often uses more milk line so some will spec this back to front to save money.

I'll disagree on a couple of points, firstly pit depth, our old parlour was 30 inches, new one is 38. Both builder and dairy engineer insisted this would be better. Generally I hold them both in high regard but on this I consider them both to be twits(I bet swear filter will change the a).

However I did get a bit of compromise on pit width at 7'6", I certainly wouldn't want it narrower although I'm sure not everyone will agree.

 

[onesiedale]

Our pit is 840 (33"). Think I'd be happy to even take it down to 31". It would make tail painting and heat detection a lot easier. At 38", I think that I would be raising the floor level.
Pit width is 1500. About right for a swingover I'd say.

 

[Tarw Coch]

Wish it was as easy as just raising the floor level, everything above has been fitted in relation to floor level, it would be a big job to alter it now, so simple when it was installed.

As with everything in life, don't do something because others say it's a good idea, by all means listen to others opinions but do what you want.

 

[vantage]

If building a new parlour build it as big as you possibly can. A lot of stuff can be easily added at a later date but extra building work is a pain. I milk in a 16:32 but the building work and rump rail has been put in for a 20:40 so extending it can easily be done between milkings with minimal inconvenience.

Same here.