EQUIPMENT ▶▶▶


Parlour preparation: Which decisions matter?


Thinking of installing or upgrading a new milking parlour can be a task in its own right. There are many decisions to make when preparing for this, and farmers have to consider the right options that will work for them now as well as in the years to come.


BY ZANA VAN DIJK T


he motivating factors when it comes to a new in- stallation or upgrade include better working con- ditions, more cow comfort, quicker milking time and labour, to name a few. When making the first decisions about which parlour design will work best, from herringbone to a rotary parlour, Rutger Schut, sales director at Europe Dairy Systems, the office of the Irish company Dairymaster on mainland Europe, has some insights. He says that the first discussions are normally around the num- ber of cows a farmer has, the breed and the farmer’s future plans. This will influence parlour type and size. “If a customer has 300 cows and wants to invest in a rotary, the job can easily be done. But we don’t know if the farmer wants to grow and what the future plans are, and you can- not extend a rotary. The farmer should think: Where do I want to grow to – will I grow from 300 to 1,000 cows for example? What is the time period for growth? If it’s, for instance, 10–15 years then you can have a different discussion.” In addition to this, making parlour decisions isn’t just about individual thought processes and whether a farmer wants to milk two or three times per day. It is also connected to location.


Location, location, location When thinking about location, the country is an important factor that can sway the way a farmer thinks. Schut emphasis- es that each country is different; not only from farmer to farmer, but the mindset and work ethic are completely differ- ent once you cross a border. Questions to ask include what are labour costs in the country? How long do farmers want to milk every day? “Here in Europe, like Germany or the Nether- lands, the labour costs are quite high. Therefore you try to make a milking session in the parlour as short as possible. But if you go to the east of Germany, where the labour costs are also high but the thinking is different, we often see that there


▶DAIRY GLOBAL | Volume 7, No. 5, 2020


they want to let milkers be occupied for at least eight hours. Then you have a parlour with a capacity where they can reach eight hours per day milking.” But he highlights that it’s not predictable, as all situations are different. For example, take a family farm in the north of Ger- many where maybe 150–300 cows are milked by a single farmer – in this situation the farmer would maybe request the biggest parlour possible with more automation options and where only 1–2 hours are spent milking, as other tasks need to be tended to.


Cow comfort When we think of cow comfort in the parlour, the options of wider entry lanes and walkways, easier and rapid exits and low noise parlour gates readily spring to mind. After all, a comfortable and less stressed cow produces a better yield. But it is also of utmost importance that the milker is comfort- able, so ergonomics should be carefully considered – think about easy-to-reach udders, for example, with uncomplicated


Rutger Schut, sales director at Europe Dairy Sys- tems, the office of Irish company Dairymaster on mainland Europe.


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PHOTO: DAIRYMASTER


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