The first significant investment in milking equipment and facilities on this farm came in 1994, when they installed a six-unit parlour into an existing hayshed that was built in 1983. Since then, the six-unit has been upgraded to an eight-unit double-up parlour – effectively 16 milking units.

Paddy explained the reasoning behind installing the Gascoigne eight-unit double-up. “Our herd has grown pretty rapidly recently and effectively we moved from milking 30 to 80 cows in a six-unit parlour three years ago. We were just spending too much time milking. However, during the period we were growing cow numbers we also bought land, a new 13,000 litre bulk tank and had built a new cubicle shed – so we didn’t want to go spending too much more money on concrete and blocks just at the moment.”

What happened?

The Fogartys decided to double up rather than drastically extend the length of the parlour. If they wanted to extend the parlour significantly, they would have had to go back into slatted tank at the back of the parlour or move the dairy and bulk tank etc that is in front of the parlour to the side. They did increase the length slightly, allowing them go from the six-unit herringbone to an eight-unit double-up.

The Fogartys effectively added a 2ft extension to the rails of the parlour, squeezed in another two units beside the existing six units and installed cluster removers. They did, of course, add another eight units with cluster removers on the other side of the pit. So, in effect, they have 16 units with which to milk cows.

Debate

I debated with Paddy about the inclusion of the cluster removers when I first got talking to him. Were cluster removers necessary given that it was still only 16 units and effectively some experts say that you only get the throughput efficiency of half the extra row? What I mean by this is if it’s an eight-unit double-up you might get the efficiency of a 12-unit herringbone. Paddy said the research he carried out prior to installation suggested that if you are going to double up then you almost need to put in cluster removers because otherwise you would be taking off clusters, then hanging them up, then unloading the row, filling it up with cows again and then putting clusters on again. There would be a lot of wasted time hanging up and down clusters instead of putting clusters on cows.

For more, see the Irish Dairy Farmer magazine on sale nationwide.