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Simple wash through system for a portable milker

Gulli

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
I have a small portable milking machine that I use for milking my few goats and trying to figure out how to setup a sensible wash through system instead of doing it by hand every day.

Got a water heater but I'm struggling to work out how to set it up so it circulates through the bucket
Least cost options always welcome :D
 

Agrispeed

Member
Location
Cornwall
I have a small portable milking machine that I use for milking my few goats and trying to figure out how to setup a sensible wash through system instead of doing it by hand every day.

Got a water heater but I'm struggling to work out how to set it up so it circulates through the bucket
Least cost options always welcome :D

What I've seen done is to tap a hole through the lid and put a decent gasket then a stainless pipe down to the bottom of the bucket with a cluster jetter attached on the outside. Turn the 'washline' on and off with a pinch clamp. Be aware you will get quite high heat losses and that this system may lead to some vacuum leaks, and a lot of these machines have very little reserve so it can make putting clusters on quite irritating if you lose vacuum after a few seconds when trying to get them on.

However, I only ever washed mine through with quite a lot of very hot water rather than circulating- a full milker buckets worth & detergent or peracetic acid (or both!) should be more than adequate, there aren't really many areas for nasties to build up on.
 

Gulli

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
Usually a case of sucking hot water up through the cluster and then cleaning around the lid with a brush.
Hardest bit is keeping the milk line clean

Essentially I'm going to end up building a parlour from scratch bit by bit as this idea I had in a pub expands, so setting up something that is at least partly automated is my on going plan.
 

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Webinar: Expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer 2024 -26th Sept

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On Thursday 26th September, we’re holding a webinar for farmers to go through the guidance, actions and detail for the expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer. This was planned for end of May, but had to be delayed due to the general election. We apologise about that.

Farming and Countryside Programme Director, Janet Hughes will be joined by policy leads working on SFI, and colleagues from the Rural Payment Agency and Catchment Sensitive Farming.

This webinar will be...
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