Watch: labour efficiencies with new rotary parlour

Last December, the Irish Farmers Journal visited the Gorman family’s Ballindrum Farm in Athy, Co Kildare. The Gormans are in the process of expanding their dairy enterprise significantly, with a plan to increase numbers to 400 cows by 2020. At that time we featured their brand new 240-cow cubicle shed.

With the rapid expansion plans, the family also had to upgrade milking facilities. In 2015, they built a state-of-the-art 40-unit rotary parlour, a large collecting yard and drafting area. Rotary parlours and the facilities that go with them certainly do not come cheap, so why go to the extra cost? Originally the Gormans had a 10-unit herringbone which was ideal for the former 75-cow milking herd. “We knew the old parlour wasn’t going to be suitable for the expansion we had planned and besides we wanted a parlour that one man could operate at the quieter times of the year,” explained Vincent.

Both Vincent and his son Brendan are very busy off the farm on a weekly basis. They have some part-time hired help which is crucial to the daily running of the farm. Rather than investing in full-time labour units, the Gormans decided to invest in facilities instead. “Full-time hired labour is expensive, with the hidden costs such as PRSI and PAYE on top of a reasonable annual wage” said Vincent. In his opinion, by avoiding large labour bills, a big proportion of the parlour would be paid for within 10 years. “Don’t get me wrong – casual labour is essential for every farm at the busier times of year and when numbers increase we will have to look at employing full-time labour,” said Vincent. After visiting large dairy farms in the US and New Zealand and seeing rotary units in action, the Gormans decided this was the way to go. “The work comes to you rather than you going to the work,” joked Brendan. With the new rotary, the Gormans can milk 40 cows in eight minutes compared with 10 cows in 10 minutes.

The shed

Figure one shows a plan view of the new 40-unit rotary parlour, dairy, collecting yard and handling area. Vincent says the collecting yard is capable of holding 250 to 300 cows but there is room to increase capacity via a side gate. There is a 10.7m wide backing gate in the collecting yard which is driven by a hydraulic power pack. The Gormans can decide when to advance the gate by pressing a switch. The gate then runs for a number of seconds, which is decided during setup. This can be changed at any stage or it can run automatically. A yard scraper at the base of the gate cleans any slurry in the yard back to the slatted tank at the end of the yard on its return trip. The robotic entrance gates allow each cow the space and comfort to enter on to the platform without pushing or shoving from the rest of the herd.

TJ Garahy Ltd did the steel work for the new shed which houses the rotary parlour and dairy. Tommy Guing Construction Ltd did the concrete work. The building process typically starts out with the site being cleared and the erection of the shed covering the milking unit. Following this, the foundations for the inner plinth and internal walls are poured. Once all relevant ducting and drains are put in place, the plinth is constructed and the internal floors are poured. The remaining internal walls and finishes are then constructed and carried out.

Pat Ryan from Dairymaster says once the building is ready for installation, the company typically installs the complete rotary parlour in one to two weeks. Plumbing and electrical work is normally carried out by the relevant contractors during this time.

“Rotary parlours tend to range from 30 to 100 units even though we would recommend at least 40 units minimum. Because a cow takes a certain amount of time to milk, under 40 units you will have an excessive amount of cows going around twice unless rotated very slowly which is inefficient,” according to Pat. He said rotary parlours can never be extended so he advises plenty of planning ahead, especially in times of expansion. The platform speed can be varied by rotating a dial on the console but the average rotation (depends on rotary size) is around 10 minutes.

This parlour has a number of extras which is claimed to make the milking process more straightforward and efficient. There are, for example, electronic diversion lines, automatic cluster removers, auto retention, stainless steel protective units, stainless steel cluster positioning arms, automatic feeding and automatic plant washing. Vincent has recently purchased on-platform teat spraying which will be installed in the next two weeks. The rotary platform teat sprayer consists of a pod positioned in each rotary bale with double spray nozzles to ensure better coverage. Once the cluster is removed from the cow the sprayer is activated and sprays the teats for a predefined amount of time. Pat says the auto washer allows for different wash cycles to be selected at the push of a button. Wash sequences are fully programmable and can be easily adjusted by the user. He says the auto washer takes over the work of washing the milking plant, which can typically reduce labour by up to an hour per day.

Milk tank

The Gormans also installed a 20,000-litre Dairymaster Swiftcool milk tank. Pat says the SwiftCool Control system allows you to communicate directly with your tank wherever you are via your mobile phone. For example, following milk collection, the system recognises that the empty tank should be washed. If washing is not activated within a set time, an alert is sent via SMS.

Storage tank

The industrial plate cooler and the water is used to fill the 10,000-litre storage tank which is used for washing down the plant after milking. Excess water can also be used to supply drinking water to the dairy unit, paddocks etc. A heat exchanger was also installed. According to Pat, the SwiftCool Duo heat recovery system recovers 100% of the heat generated during milk cooling in the milk tank and uses this to heat up water very quickly to a minimum temperature of 55°C. “It can heat one litre of water up to 55°C for every litre of milk cooled. Reduced water heating costs can potentially save over €1,000 if using over 300l/day,” claimed Pat.

Drafting area

After cows are milked, they enter the drafting area. The three-way drafting system works here as a standalone system. Each cow wears an electronic transponder which is identified once the cow enters the drafting system. The route for individual cows can be selected from the parlour using a console or they can be pre-selected before milking on the farm computer. At breeding time Vincent usually walks around the herd before milking and takes a picture of a bulling cow’s number on his phone. The numbers are then entered into the computer and cows are drafted automatically after milking. There are three locking barriers in the drafting area which were supplied by O’Donovan Engineering. The cows are offered some meal to entice them to put their heads through the barriers and they are then held securely in the barrier for their AI service.

Cost

Approximate costs of milking infrastructure and plant (€/excluding VAT):