Parlour Option

Which parlour to milk 200 cows an hour

  • 32/64 with feeders

    Votes: 17 23.3%
  • 32/64 with basic fast exit

    Votes: 8 11.0%
  • 50/60 point rotary.

    Votes: 48 65.8%

  • Total voters
    73

Graham2123

New Member
Correct I’ve never seen it done
A lot of people slag off Dairymaster but to be fair they have their faults but it does do what it says on the tin.
That rotary had two drive units on it and it drove on one unit
1800 cows three times a day
That would be Langdon mill
 

NoParticularPattern

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Yorkshire
How many cows do you guys need to make a decent living? Why not keep half as many and enjoy the job and life.
Four households to support, best part of 7 full time wages to pay. We could probably do it with fewer cows but as noted with the usual hamster wheel talk, it’s difficult to just drop numbers overnight as cutting the herd in half won’t necessarily halve costs overnight. I absolutely think we could do with smaller numbers, but I also know that it wouldn’t matter if milking took 8 hours or 20 minutes, we would still spend 16-18 hours out of every 24 outside working, just wouldn’t be in the pit!
 

jendan

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northumberland
Four households to support, best part of 7 full time wages to pay. We could probably do it with fewer cows but as noted with the usual hamster wheel talk, it’s difficult to just drop numbers overnight as cutting the herd in half won’t necessarily halve costs overnight. I absolutely think we could do with smaller numbers, but I also know that it wouldn’t matter if milking took 8 hours or 20 minutes, we would still spend 16-18 hours out of every 24 outside working, just wouldn’t be in the pit!
Have you found a farm yet? What about the one in Lancashire? The owner is a member on here.
 

NoParticularPattern

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Yorkshire
Have you found a farm yet? What about the one in Lancashire? The owner is a member on here.
No have we nowt! Blackmoss? Looks a smart farm but various bits not quite right for us- AD plant isn’t something we are interested in really and just a couple of other ifs for us. I suspect we would be far less picky over it if it wasn’t such a massive move away though, but it is what it is! Plus finding somewhere else always seems far more attractive before the sun starts shining and you’re thinking about silaging doesn’t it?! Although if the rotary isn’t spinning in the next couple of weeks I’m not sure if silaging will be happening at all 😂
 

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
How many cows do you guys need to make a decent living? Why not keep half as many and enjoy the job and life.
Get enough cows and you can get to the stage that you don't have to do too much with them other than management.
Only got 200 then the chances are you have to milk them yourself.
 

miniconnect

Member
Location
Argyll
We are milking for more than 3 hours at the moment with an extra 150 heifers to calf in the next 12 months.

I'd like to milk 200 cows an hour. Holsteins 9500litres+ average so 30-33 a day. Currently do a mix of foaming/washable wipe on fresher calvers and soaked washable wipe on the rest.

I would only consider ATL/Milfos/GEA.

Interestingly I've spoken to a few fitters from different companies and they all said if they were milking themselves they wouldn't have a rotary.

An example of the style of fast exit i'm considering.
 

Real cool

Member
I started my life working at home,milking the cows.
Couldn’t work with my brother so I trained to be a dairy engineer
I’ve fitted most types of milking parlour, but cow numbers determine the type of parlour you have.
So for the numbers you are talking about rotary is the answer
 

yin ewe

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Co Antrim
Which bit, milking them yourself or stepping back to just management?
Either ones fine but if you want to just manage, you're going to need plenty of cows.

If you just want to manage cows, 60 on a robot is the way to go, no milking at 5 in the morning and no staff to manage either.
 

DairyGrazing

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North West
We're nearly at the same position. Put in a 30/60 for 400 cows....now at 480, heading for 520 next year. Morning mklkings 3.5 hrs. Spot rates of 200/hr. But by the time you've mucked about with the cronk group, treated etc. Time soon runs away.
If we went rotary (50/60 point) then numbers could climb up comfortably to 700+.

How many operators do you have in the parlour and are you doing any prep?
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.0%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 35.1%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,291
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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