For a farmer with a herd of 250 cows, there are several options that will be examined when it comes to upgrading milking facilities. However, one of the lesser chosen options is the rapid-exit parlour.

This was the option chosen for the partnership of Timmy Flanagan and Timmy Gleeson, who are currently milking 250 cows near Holycross Abbey in Co Tipperary.

“We had extended the old parlour on the farm to 18 units over the years but the majority of the parlour had been there for the past 30 years,” Flanagan said.

“The biggest issue that we had with the old setup was cow flow. Cows had to make a sharp turn several times to get into the parlour and again when they exited so it was really slowing down milking. This is something that we focused on improving for the new parlour.”

The two farmers have been in partnership for the past 18 years.

“Timmy Gleeson put an ad in the Irish Farmers Journal with a view to entering into a partnership with someone so I contacted him and he came and worked on the farm for a few years. Then when we knew that we could work well together we entered into a farm partnership,” Flanagan said.

He continued: “I suppose when it comes to two unrelated farmers getting into partnership together the best advice I could give is to have it legally set up in a way that either party can get out if they want to or if circumstances change.”

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The decision was made to go with a 20-unit rapid-exit parlour from Pearson Milking Technology after discussing several different options, including a rotary. “We looked at a few different parlours before we decided what to go with. We visited a rotary parlour and looked at a rapid-exit parlour and what really impressed us with the rapid-exit parlour was the flow of cows in and out of the parlour,” Flanagan explained.

The rotary route was one that the duo had examined but with the current land block meaning that 250 cows is the maximum that can be carried on the farm, the additional investment needed could not be justified.

“The new parlour will work best when you can have two men for the milking – one to get the cows in and then help the other man in the pit. That said, we would have four to five milkings a week when there is only one man and it is manageable with this setup,” Flanagan said.

“I’ve gone to the age now where I don’t do the milkings. It is mainly done by Timmy Gleeson and Przemek Bogumil, who works full-time on the farm.”

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For many farmers, a rapid-exit parlour will be a new concept. The real difference is that when cows are exiting the parlour, the feed trough in front of the cows will lift up and they will walk straight out.

A sequential bailing system is used in the parlour to help position cows at a near 90° angle for milking. The sequential bailing paddles don’t lift up with the trough system which helps the cows to exit straight out of the parlour.

The parlour itself is high-specification, with automatic cluster removers, individual milk recording and a feed-to-yield system all part of the machine.

A Pearson air stream cluster flushing system is also in place. This system back-flushes the cluster after every cow. The cluster is flushed with parasitic acid and injected with compressed air.

The aim of the system is to prevent mastitis spreading between cows.

When cows are standing in the parlour, galvanised sheeting is in place behind them to guide dung into a channel.

Not only will this help to keep the pit clean but it will also improve milking hygiene.

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Before cows enter the parlour, they will move into a large 30m by 13.7m collecting yard.

One unique aspect of the collecting yard is that a rope scraper/backing gate was installed by Alfco Engineering.

“We thought the rope system would be kinder on cows’ feet in the collecting yard and it has worked well so far.” There are two winches needed to move the gate.

Currently, the collecting yard can hold almost 300 cows but the farmers prefer for the cows to have a bit of space when in the yard prior to milking.

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Yet another impressive aspect of the design can be seen in the unique handing area. When cows exit the parlour, they can be guided down through a long collecting yard and straight out to the roadways.

The farmers wanted this area to be as easy to clean as possible, so it was designed to have a hydraulic scraper running down through the unit and into the slatted tank running across the collecting yard.

Cows can be guided through a Heatime drafting gate, the crush, or a footbath from this central passage, if required.

When cows exit the drafting gate if they are being guided back out to pasture they will go back out on the scraped passage.

However, they will move through a chute suspended from the adjoining wall which allows the scraper to move underneath it. This also ensures there is an increased holding area for cows beside this suspended chute.

“This way, cows don’t have to go through the crush to get back out to the fields and it just means we have a little less cleaning to do,” Flanagan said.

The total cost came to €395,000 plus VAT. The milking equipment came to a cost of €220,000 including fittings.

However, this does not include the bulk tank which was brought over from the previous parlour.

“We had priced a rotary parlour at the same time and it was coming in at €80,000 more for the equipment alone, so we decided to go with the rapid-exit option instead,” Flanagan said.

The shed and roller doors was supplied by Thurles Engineering with steel purloins used to provide additional strength.

The plumbing was completed by Jimmy Breen while Michael Hayes did the electrical work. Jim Leamy Plant Hire completed the majority of the concrete work and also helped to stand the shed.

The Heatime drafting gate was supplied by Efficient Farm Solutions Ltd.