The cows are milked three times a day through a 40-point GEA external rotary parlour. The parlour has auto ID which is linked to dairy plan in the office. Milking takes place at 04:30-08:00, 12:30-16:00 and 20:00-23:00 every day. Three people are milking and one person is cleaning yards and moving cows.
The cows enter the parlour the the entry passageway, and are identified via a leg transponder, the cows teats are then pre dipped with a disinfectant foam and wiped with a microfibre cloth, then her milk is checked. Afterwards, the milking unit is attached, which takes 90 seconds from her being dipped to being milked. Once milked the automatic cluster removal system removes the unit from her and she can be checked over before having a post dip, which is a vital product to protect the teats from bacteria that can spread during milking. Then she exits the parlour once she reaches the exit passageway.
Any cow with milk that is not fit for human consumption has a dump bucket attached to the cluster where the milk can be diverted to the bucket, instead of going into the bulk tank, and disposed of. After milking the parlour is washed clean and a hot wash is put through the system which disinfects the milking line and clusters.
We are contract and sell our milk through Muller which is collected every day. We receive a daily milk quality check from National Milk Records (NMR), so we can keep a close tab on milk constituents and quality. It is important to produce milk at the best standards as we are paid bonuses for achieving this and our payment is deducted for poor quality milk. As part of the milk contract we must also predict milk volumes on a 15 month rolling basis, so the information we receive from NMR is vital to forecast our potential.
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