It is not entirely uncommon to hear about a family packing up their farming enterprise in Ireland to move to New Zealand or some other sunnier clime to seek out new opportunities. Slightly less common, however, is to find a family moving to Ireland because of the opportunities they can see in low-cost grass production here. That’s exactly what GD Young and his family did. They are originally from a 500-acre partially fragmented wet farm in Argyll, Scotland. GD wanted to implement a low-cost grass-based dairy enterprise in Ireland instead of the high-cost and high-labour system he had in Scotland.
It is not entirely uncommon to hear about a family packing up their farming enterprise in Ireland to move to New Zealand or some other sunnier clime to seek out new opportunities. Slightly less common, however, is to find a family moving to Ireland because of the opportunities they can see in low-cost grass production here.
That’s exactly what GD Young and his family did. They are originally from a 500-acre partially fragmented wet farm in Argyll, Scotland. GD wanted to implement a low-cost grass-based dairy enterprise in Ireland instead of the high-cost and high-labour system he had in Scotland.
The Youngs found a 408-acre farm in Mullingar for sale in early March 2015 and bought it at auction at a price of €1.95m (€4,800/acre) shortly after. GD said that when he bought the farm it was all in stubble with very little infrastructure.
“There was only an old bungalow house, a couple of haysheds and a silage pit, so there was a lot of work to be done to set it up for a dairy enterprise,” according to GD. Work has progressed steadily since the purchase. The Irish Farmers Journal paid a visit last week to the Young farm to see first-hand the development of an almost complete rotary parlour and the start of new winter accommodation.
Picture one
This is the 44-unit Waikato rotary dairy parlour supplied and fitted by Dairypower from Blarney, Co Cork. Work started on the parlour on 9 December and the majority of the work is now complete.
To construct the rotary platform, James Manly from Dairypower said they got the builders Andy Lawlor and Roger Hynes on the site to install the centre donut and plinth blocks that the platform sits on.
When the platform installer team got to the site they started by taking all measurements from the centre point of the platform. The outside skirt was installed first. The rollers on the plinth plates were installed using levels and laser eye beams for accurate height measurements.
The I-beams and deck ports were welded into place. The 2 x 1.5kW motors, which drive the wheels on each side of the main beam, were put in place. Next the shutters for the concrete were erected and steel reinforcing mesh was put in place.
As the concrete was poured, the platform was rotated, making the pouring very easy. It was then left for a number of days to set. Once it was set the bails, safety rails, feed bins and ladders, etc, were bolted on to the platform and welded together. This process took approximately ten days to complete.
Picture two
There are three main special features in the parlour that GD decided to install to make milking an efficient and quick job.
Auto-retention is one feature that he feels will be beneficial when he starts milking the cows. This system holds a cow in a unit if she knocks off her clusters before being fully milked. It means when a full revolution is complete she cannot back out of the parlour at the exit and is kept on for another revolution so that the milker can attach the clusters again to make sure she is fully milked.
The parlour has automatic cluster removers and also an auto-start – this means once the clusters are picked up, the vacuum automatically starts. In other parlours, the milker usually has to press a button to start the vacuum in the cluster. The third main feature in GD’s parlour is auto teat spraying. The system works on timing from the ACR; the spray time and amount of spray can be adjusted to suit the individual farm.
According to James, the main advantage of this system is that cows are sprayed while the teat duct is still open after milking for maximum chemical effect.
“Because the spray is coming from directly underneath the cow, there is full coverage on all the teats during spraying. It also uses less spray than other forms of teat spraying,” James claimed. There is a 2+2 pulsation system which James says is proven worldwide to give faster milking time and less milk slug issues in the milk line.
Pictures three and four
There are four separate rooms in the corners of the parlour. One is called the wet room. This is where the Terra services mineral water system is housed for the paddocks and winter accomodation.
GD calls the room adjoining this the dry room and this houses the mains electricity, power for pumps and the vacuum pump for the parlour. Another room houses the autowashing machine for the milk lines – the milk filter is here and the plate cooler. Above this room, there are two hot water tanks, a 900-litre tank and a 300-litre tank. The heat exchanger that extracts heat from the refrigerator in the bulk milk tank passes the heat into a coil in the 900-litre tank and heats this water to 55°c, the water is brought to 80°c by an electric powered immersion in the smaller tank. This is an efficient way of heating hot water for the autowasher. The last room will be an office.
Picture five
GD says the feed system is very simple. It is a flat-rate system, so all cows will get the same amount of nuts during milking and no cow will get special treatment. Every five seconds, the system outputs nuts into the feeder in front of a cow as she enters the parlour. A large 25t capacity V-Mac silo was supplied by McAree Engineering.
Pictures six and seven
The flood wash system for the collecting yard and return yard promises to be very impressive when complete. A 20,000-litre tower was erected which will hold “green water”.
Green water is comprised of dairy parlour washings, milk liner washings and filtered water from the slurry tank. The washings from the parlour will all be directed to a sump and a pump will send the used water to the tower. A sump pump will also be placed in a 400mm diameter perforated plastic pipe in the outdoor slurry tank. The pipe will be located at the furthest point in the tank and close to the bottom where solids are less likely to collect. The water from the slurry tank will then be pumped to the tower.
After milking, GD will open a valve and 20,000 litres of green water will flow via gravity through seven hinged flaps to clean down the collecting yard and return yard. The dirty water will then flow on to the adjoining slatted area.
This will be a very economical method for cleaning the yards. There will be an autodraft system set up in the return yard (picture 7) and a crush that will run the length of the yard that will be used for testing and dosing.
Why rotary?
GD said he has been overwhelmed with the support he has received since he moved to Ireland.
“I have been blessed with the people I have met so far. I got in touch with Pat Gowing from Teagasc and he was a great help planning the building work and he put me in contact with lots of great people,” he explained.
“I was dead set on a standard herringbone parlour because of cost but after attending discussion group meetings and talking to Irish farmers I changed my mind. They said it made sense to have a rotary if I was planning on increasing cow numbers to 350.”
Making life easier
After pricing around, GD decided to go with a rotary because he feels it will make life easier for the operator and the cows. It should take eight to 12 minutes to milk a cow depending on time of lactation. The variable speed drive for the platform means the speed can be faster or slower as required.
The shed for the parlour, ground work, the rotary parlour itself, bulk tank and dairy will cost approximately €1,200/cow (based on a 350-cow herd). The sale of the farm in Scotland and a favourable exchange rate is a significant help in funding the development, according to GD.
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