Milking efficiency in Offaly parlour

Joe and Paul Molloy farm together in Ferbane outside Tullamore, Co Offaly. Paul also works part time with Eurogene as a rep and AI technician. They are currently milking 120 cows on a 32ha milking block, with another 32ha out farm. It’s a spring-calving herd and up until 2017 they were milking in an eight-unit Dairymaster parlour. With 15 rows of cows to go through, it would take between two and half to three hours to milk. With the TAMS grants available, Joe and Paul decided it was time to upgrade the milking facilities.

The shed

“After going looking at parlours and getting Grasstech to come out and look at a plan to locate the parlour, we decided on a greenfield site beside the original farmyard,” said Paul.

After deciding on the location, the next decision was the size of the parlour, the design and how to incorporate the required handling facilities.

The main things they considered were cow flow and having the handling facilities under the one roof. A 29m x 12m shed was put up covering the plant room, parlour and handling facilities. The collecting yard is at the back of the shed.

Cows come in a separate route than they go out, with a loop system put in place off the lane entering the yard.

“Before, we were holding cows in the yard until the last row was milked, which slowed cow flow and meant cows were standing on concrete longer than needed - now they’re straight back to grass,” said Joe.

Cows can exit the parlour from the left or the right. They exit to the right when they are being drafted or going back to the shed and to the left when they are going straight back to grass.

The parlour

After a 20-unit Boumatic parlour with automatic cluster removers was bought, work on the parlour started in June of 2017 and was finished that October.

The parlour was built with 2’3” centres, so cows are standing at 85°, straight in front of you, or at a right angle to the rump rail.

Paul says he finds the cows present their udders a lot better for milking when they are at that angle.

“We went for tombstone bailing in front of the cows, as we liked the finish of them.

“The bailing system locks the cows in place and works off of air. It stops cows turning around in the parlour and helps them to exit a lot quicker,” he explained.

The machine also included an independent dump line, air operated exit and entry gates to the parlour and automated meal feeders, which are all controlled by an air compressor.

The fall in the parlour is to the front, with channels in front of the cows and across the top of the parlour. A sump pump at the top of the parlour pumps the water back down the yard to the dirty water tank.

After a full year of milking in 2018, the Molloys found that the finish on the floor of the parlour was too smooth, with a lot of cows slipping. In 2019, the decision was made to put down mats under the cows in the parlour, which has made a huge difference and solved the problem.

Other investments

The parlour also has an auto wash system, which Paul says works very well, but they have noticed that they are using a lot more detergents than before, which is to be expected when moving from an eight unit to a 20-unit parlour.

They also installed a variable speed pump and a plate cooler, which have made a huge difference on the farm.

“We never had a plate cooler or variable speed pump in our old parlour and we actually had a higher electricity bill milking in an eight unit parlour compared to the 20-unit,” Paul said.

A new 10,700l Packo bulk tank was installed with the new build. An 8t meal bin was also installed. It is self-filled, but concentrates can also be blown in, which gives Joe and Paul the option of buying their own grain to store on the farm.

Drafting and handling unit

There is no automated drafting system at the moment, so cows are drafted manually.

However, when directed left leaving the parlour, they have to walk out a shoot in single file, which has been left at the correct size to install an automatic drafter in the future.

Paul and Joe are both around the farm for the majority of the milkings, so manually drafting the cows is no great strain on efficiency in the parlour.

The handling facilities consist of a race and a crush. The races are used for testing and scanning and the crush for dosing individual cows and pairing their feet.

The collecting yard

The collecting yard is 21m x 11.5m, with another half meter of the yard taken up by the exit shoot. This gives the Molloys a 241.5m2 yard for their cows.

Allowing 1.3m2 per cow, this yard would hold up to 186 cows, leaving Joe and Paul plenty room for expansion.

There is a dirty water tank at the bottom of the yard, which collects all the water from the parlour and the collecting yard. It is 40ft wide and 8ft deep, with 12’6 slats.

There is no backing gate on the collecting yard and no plans to put one in either, as cow flow has been very good. The yard has a nice fall on it, which makes it very easy to wash down.

Joe and Paul have incorporated a channel at the bottom of their collecting yard to catch the water before it hits the dirty water tank.

This is directed into the tank for most of the year, but once the cows are dry and the yard is out of action it is directed away from the tanks, saving them a lot of storage by not gathering unwanted rain water.

Efficiency

The parlour is now a very efficient system for Joe and Paul, as they are only milking six rows of cows. It is easily managed by one man outside of calving and breeding.

With the instalment of an automatic drafting system, it could possibly be a one man job for the breeding season as well. However, this is not an issue for the Molloys, as the two of them are around the farm every day.

“In May when cows are peaking, we would have 120 cows milked and the parlour washed up in an hour. At the back end of the year, that is down to 45mins. If you were milking on your own you could add another 15mins to that time,” said Paul.

A final word from the Molloys

“We are very happy with the parlour and the Boumatic machine itself. Our old parlour had 4x0 pulsation and we found it was hard on the cow’s teats. The new machine is running on a 2x2 pulsation and we find the teats are a lot healthier. Our somatic cell count has also halved since going into the new parlour.

“The few things that we find make the biggest difference are the independent dump line and the variable speed pump and plate cooler. The dump line has really made life very simple when taking out milk during the year and at calving. The plate cooler and variable speed pump have really reduced running costs.”

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