SEPTEMBER 2019 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC Dairy tour showcases innovative farming


New technology and repurposed parlour put to good use


by JACKIE PEARASE SPALLUMCHEEN—


Innovation was front and centre during a tour of North Okanagan dairies on August 13. The Kamloops Okanagan


Dairymen’s Association hosted the tour – its first in three years – which saw 50 area farmers plus industry, service and financial institution representatives visit three North Okanagan dairy operations.


Scott and Julie de Boer


showcased some recent changes on their farm, Forefields Holsteins Ltd. on Deep Creek Road in Spallumcheen.


The de Boers built a new


milking barn last year and retrofitted it with a used double-12 parallel milking parlour from the Fraser Valley. They also included a 6,400 gallon Koolway milk tank, GEA return alley footpaths, a Daritech crowd gate – all used – plus a Westward pasteurizer and bottle washer. The used milking parlour


replaces the diagonal stall design the farm had for more than 13 years. “We were spending too much time milking cows in our old parlour,” explains Scott de Boer.


The new system saves three


to four hours in milking each day, allows for about 10 more cows to be milked, has reduced de Boer’s stress somewhat, and requires less labour.


The new parlour allows the


cows to be milked from the rear, which results in fewer kicks to the milker and adjacent cows, and is safer for the family’s six kids to pitch in. The new set-up is twice the


size of the last one and provides ample space for the cows. De Boer considered a


robotic milker but determined it would cost him more to milk. The used equipment saved him about $150,000. “It’s nice to show people


that you don’t have to build a new parlour. Not everyone can afford to build new,” he adds.


Reducing phosphorus Further down Deep Creek


Road at Waby Brook Farms Ltd., Kevin and Joy de Vos provided their peers with a demonstration of a centrifuge project from Valid Manufacturing Ltd. Corporate development lead Chad Shipmaker says Valid is interested in using custom design and manufacturing to solve problems. “The owner is quite committed to identifying


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problems that need to be solved and diversifying the company,” he says. With increased interest in


BC around waste management in agriculture, Valid began developing a centrifuge that would remove phosphorus from manure. The 10-inch diameter decanter centrifuge with an eight-degree cone angle was at the de Vos farm for testing during the tour. Valid representative Grant


Meikle provided a hands-on demonstration. The manure pumped from the lagoon through a gate valve into a receiving tank where a recirculating pump grinds up the raw product. It’s then pumped to the primary tank where everything is spun together before going into the centrifuge. “If you kinda look at it, it’s just a chain reaction: one stage to the next,” Meikle explains. The dry product spit out has a moisture content of about 15%. The liquid tea left over returns to the lagoon but it could be recaptured and used.


The centrifuge has a


throughput rate of five to 25 gallons per minute running at 4,400 rpm. It has an adjustable differential speed of between five and 30 rpm. Pre-separation of the raw product is suggested but the


15


Grant Meikle from Valid Manufacturing says the dry matter coming out of the company’s centrifuge has just 15% moisture content. They expect the machine to remove 40% to 60% of the phosphorus from the raw material. JACKIE PEARASE PHOTO


demonstration skipped that step.


Shipmaker says the centrifuge is expected to remove 40% to 60% of phosphorus from the raw material. UBC will conduct chemical analysis of the tea and dry material to determine how well the equipment works. The working parts will also be examined and tested after 400 hours on the de Vos farm. “It is working the way we’d like it to but we still have a lot


of learning and testing to do ourselves before it’s ready for market,” notes Shipmaker. The centrifuge will be tested on a few farms in the North Okanagan and Fraser Valley this fall to generate enough data for effective analysis. Most farmers were


interested in the new equipment but reserved their final judgment. “If their mandate is to bring a machine they can make cost


effective and affordable for small farms, that’s great,” says Kevin de Vos. “We’ll see if they can achieve that.”


New robots Neil and Stephanie van


Dalfsen hosted the final stop of the tour at Top View Dairy on Trinity Valley Road in Enderby. In addition to a silage


presentation, people toured See TOUR on next page o


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