your milking parlour

awaywithyou

guys we're considering a new parlour......


wondering what size parlour have ye got...?

take long to milk...?

contain any fancy gadgets....?

anything youd put in or leave out if doing it again....?

whelan1

we have a 15 unit parlour... grand for 1 person have cluster removers , its a mix match of a a few different types, alfa laval, senior , westfalia, works well for us... its not very modern but when i win the lotto i might change . otherwise i'm stuck with it

blue5000

awaywithyou wrote: »

guys we're considering a new parlour......



anything youd put in or leave out if doing it again....?

If, God forbid I ever had to do it again I'd put in a robot. Stopped milking a few years back and I never want to step into a pit again.

5live

14 unit delaval with jars at 2'6" centres and room for 20 units. An hour from first cluster on to last off at the minute for 84 cows and 15 minute cluster cleaning and parlour wash down so not too bad.

I would have put in feeders and hope to next year but saying that for 4 years now:rolleyes:. With feeders, acrs and a backing gate and with 20 units i reckon i could milk 120 in 75 minutes or 85 at peak in spring but that is only a guess at the minute and would depend on preparation time. But i'm not going to spend 40k next year to find out

Oh yeah. Put in a variable speed milk pump. Best money i spent in upgrading to date. No more problems setting a manual restrictor

stanflt

dairymaster 10unit-all the frills

94 in 1hr 18 in the morn
1hr 09 evening

centre 13

Forget about the gadgets,its all about units if you want to milk cows quickly..assuming reasonable cow flo..we have 22 units , a narro pit no acrs and no swing arms .What we do have is heaps of light..no walls ,a good backing gate and a good drafting system..ALFCO...so you do not have to leave the pit during milking.....beware smooth talking sales people because there are plenty of gullible dairy farmers out there..milking time 120 cows an hour at peak back to 50 mins now with 10 mins wash up..one man ..2 men during calving.

whelan1

centre 13 wrote: »

Forget about the gadgets,its all about units if you want to milk cows quickly..assuming reasonable cow flo..we have 22 units , a narro pit no acrs and no swing arms .What we do have is heaps of light..no walls ,a good backing gate and a good drafting system..ALFCO...so you do not have to leave the pit during milking.....beware smooth talking sales people because there are plenty of gullible dairy farmers out there..milking time 120 cows an hour at peak back to 50 mins now with 10 mins wash up..one man ..2 men during calving.

so if 1 person is milking and no acrs is the first cow not over milked by the time you get the last unit on?

jeff greene

whelan1 wrote: »

so if 1 person is milking and no acrs is the first cow not over milked by the time you get the last unit on?

indubitably :pac:

I'd prefer to see them hanging idle than hanging off the cow. 12 max I was told by a few different companies is enough for 1 without ACRs.

centre 13

Moorepark research has shown that clusters can remain on cow for 2 mins after milking has ceased without harm..our cell count is running around 100 k for last 3 months..lo as 28 k up to about 190 k.You would be hanging around waiting for cows in first row it speeds up around row 4 ..lot opf hysteria out there promoted by same sales men..they have a vested interest...one proviso you wont run a parlour like this unless you are milk recording and know your problem cows using cmt etc.

whelan1

jeff greene wrote: »

indubitably :pac:

I'd prefer to see them hanging idle than hanging off the cow. 12 I was told by a few different companies is enough for 1 without ACRs.

what does indubitably mean? , we have 15 with acrs and 1 person is well able to work alone

kennedy138

get a 60 cow rotary Give aib a ring they will be happy to help out

kennedy138

over 12 units acrs essential for man and cows

centre 13

Pity ACR s cant speed up the milking

jeff greene

centre 13 wrote: »

Pity ACR s cant speed up the milking

I'm certain they do, even if they didn't they would prevent overmilking and despite Moorepark tests, overmilking is detrimental to the udder .Not all salesmen are out to get you either

dar31

22-24 units, acrs, good backing gate, auto drafting/heat time, basic feeders.
one man job after spring peak, happy days.

me little 12 unit at the moment takes 4.5 hrs a day, was doing 6.5 hrs a day at peak, with no prep work.

bbam

jeff greene wrote: »

I'm certain they do, even if they didn't they would prevent overmilking and despite Moorepark tests, overmilking is detrimental to the udder .Not all salesmen are out to get you either

ACR's will speed up the milking but only marginally...
Folks who don't see much difference are the "work flat out" while in the pit types.. ACR's will allow the same throughput without having to run up and down the pit like you're in the blooody olympics.

Some overmilking on a well maintained well set up machine is not a problem as long as it's not let get out of hand... more problems are seen due to poor machines than overmilking.

Not all sales men are out to get you... but remember lots (or most) are on commission rather than a flat wage so adding expensive bits on won't hurt them at all..

Older 3'6 parlours probably needed ACR's over 12 units... at 2'2 you could go a few more and still manage fine..

whelan1

milked 360 cows in an 8 unit parlour on placement in england...was well pissed off milking cows after that.. started at 4 am , 4 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the evening

bbam

whelan1 wrote: »

milked 360 cows in an 8 unit parlour on placement in england...was well pissed off milking cows after that.. started at 4 am , 4 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the evening

Jebus that sort of carry on is crazy

whelan1

bbam wrote: »

Jebus that sort of carry on is crazy

yes i was young and foolish .... hated it with a passion

supermajor

blue5000 wrote: »

If, God forbid I ever had to do it again I'd put in a robot. Stopped milking a few years back and I never want to step into a pit again.

Any1 on here actually running a robot or are they still far fetched or just suited to in door systems?

F.D

supermajor wrote: »

Any1 on here actually running a robot or are they still far fetched or just suited to in door systems?

Can't see why they wont work if all your grazing area is in one block, and you have a fixed number of cows in mind? if you expand beyond the Robots capabilitys it could get expensive to get another thats the only drawback i see with it,

I see the no frills been pushed alot (i'm not milking by the way but hopefully someday i will) But what i cant understand is how you can stand there milking a cow and have no idea what she is given, surley Jars or metering are essential no matter what commision a sales man is getting,
Whats the point in having,feeding and breeding a cow that could be only given a fraction of the one stood next to her

jeff greene

supermajor wrote: »

Any1 on here actually running a robot or are they still far fetched or just suited to in door systems?

Two close enough to me here in south Kerry, a new Lely dealer in Killorglin might mean more in the future. Missed an open day a few months back but would be very interested in it, some great threads on BFF about them. As far as I know these two are grazing.

bbam

F.D wrote: »

I see the no frills been pushed alot (i'm not milking by the way but hopefully someday i will) But what i cant understand is how you can stand there milking a cow and have no idea what she is given, surley Jars or metering are essential

Indeed jars would be a basic requirement... electronic meters I'm not sure about, if you already run farm management software that would auto load the information then maybe.. I've seen lots of electronic meters installed on farms that don't use a computer, and then only used to a fraction of their potential, money ill spent.

red bull

Guys can you imagine working just 39 hours a week ? 6x6 +3 on Sundays maybe:D
Can it be done ? Get a parlour that helps you achieve that, I don't mean milking time only. We are getting an asses pay for a horses work:mad:

blue5000

F.D wrote: »

But what i cant understand is how you can stand there milking a cow and have no idea what she is given, surley Jars or metering are essential no matter what commision a sales man is getting,
Whats the point in having,feeding and breeding a cow that could be only given a fraction of the one stood next to her

Because a cows yield only goes up a bit each day for the first 8 wks after calving. The rest of the lactation it is falling almost every day, except when they hit aftergrass maybe. Having to milk every day twice a day is depressing enough without having to watch her give a little bit less as well:eek:

jeff greene

blue5000 wrote: »

Because a cows yield only goes up a bit each day for the first 8 wks after calving. The rest of the lactation it is falling almost every day, except when they hit aftergrass maybe. Having to milk every day twice a day is depressing enough without having to watch her give a little bit less as well:eek:

My tank collection isn't falling at all, same all summer.

Is milking depressing? I quite enjoy it, alone in the parlour, headphones on, cows spilling milk, dreaming of spending all that money:pac:. Not much point dairy farming if you don't like milking and have an interest in cows.

F.D

blue5000 wrote: »

Because a cows yield only goes up a bit each day for the first 8 wks after calving. The rest of the lactation it is falling almost every day, except when they hit aftergrass maybe. Having to milk every day twice a day is depressing enough without having to watch her give a little bit less as well:eek:

Fair enough It goes up and down in a cycle, but what is the starting point, 10, 15,20 ltrs, what ever about milking a good cow but milking a slow under achiever would really be depressing

F.D

whelan1 wrote: »

milked 360 cows in an 8 unit parlour on placement in england...was well pissed off milking cows after that.. started at 4 am , 4 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the evening

Did a stint in the uk years ago myself and got the tshirt for milking too, remember been sent out to fetch in cows out of the field with a torch at 4.30 in the morning too, when i questioned the different farmers why didnt they up grade they said because they were tennents they were afraid to invest,

whelan1

anyone read the article in the journal about putting clusters on cows , also about swapping hands with the cluster when putting on to next cow.... i for one have a bad elbow in my right arm and whenever i am not milking for a few days the pain goes away, kind of a repetitive strain injury.... also i always put the cluster on the left back spin first and work my way around clockwise, had to take note this evening how i put it on and re read the article

blue5000

Ah whelan you're gettin old, maybe it was all those 8hr days in the UK.

There is a faster way of putting the cups on, if you are right handed catch the claw in the rt hand, hold the far right cup in your left hand with the far left cup resting on your left wrist.
Put the far right cup on first, with the left hand, then the far left, and as you almost have the near left cup on with the left hand, bring the near right cup up with the right hand.

whelan1

blue5000 wrote: »

Ah whelan you're gettin old, maybe it was all those 8hr days in the UK.

There is a faster way of putting the cups on, if you are right handed catch the claw in the rt hand, hold the far right cup in your left hand with the far left cup resting on your left wrist.
Put the far right cup on first, with the left hand, then the far left, and as you almost have the near left cup on with the left hand, bring the near right cup up with the right hand.

see the funny thing is i am left handed and have the pain in my right elbow

5live

blue5000 wrote: »

Ah whelan you're gettin old, maybe it was all those 8hr days in the UK.

There is a faster way of putting the cups on, if you are right handed catch the claw in the rt hand, hold the far right cup in your left hand with the far left cup resting on your left wrist.
Put the far right cup on first, with the left hand, then the far left, and as you almost have the near left cup on with the left hand, bring the near right cup up with the right hand.

Wont you be sucking in a lot of air in the LF cup while you are putting on the RF

dar31

blue5000 wrote: »

Ah whelan you're gettin old, maybe it was all those 8hr days in the UK.

There is a faster way of putting the cups on, if you are right handed catch the claw in the rt hand, hold the far right cup in your left hand with the far left cup resting on your left wrist.
Put the far right cup on first, with the left hand, then the far left, and as you almost have the near left cup on with the left hand, bring the near right cup up with the right hand.

used to do it your way blue, when working on rotarys, the boss would turn up the speed and sit back laughing till i got the hang of it, you can fly through cows once you get the hang of it.

re read your post, once you get the front two on, quickly relasse the two and grab the back two with both hands and put up before loosing vacum

cant do it much in me own palour as it at them god awful 3ft what ever centres, through the back legs.
usually start on the front left/right depending as putting up the back ones at the tight angle, it gets in the way

keep going

blue5000 wrote: »

Ah whelan you're gettin old, maybe it was all those 8hr days in the UK.

There is a faster way of putting the cups on, if you are right handed catch the claw in the rt hand, hold the far right cup in your left hand with the far left cup resting on your left wrist.
Put the far right cup on first, with the left hand, then the far left, and as you almost have the near left cup on with the left hand, bring the near right cup up with the right hand.

i do it that way too by far the best way

F.D

Back to the original question, i was milking for my relation yesterday evening, the biggest pain in the ass is solid bar in the middle of the pit for holding the clusters etc that you keep bashing into when switching from side to side,