Parlour

What we do...

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 DairyPlan C21 software in the herdsman office. Milking takes place at 04:00-07:00, 12:00-15:00 and 20:00-23:00 every day. Three people are milking and one person is cleaning the collecting yard and moving cows.

The process

The cows enter the parlour through 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 cluster 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 cows 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 once milking commences. After milking, the parlour is washed down and a hot wash is put through the milking system which disinfects the milking line and clusters.

Why we do it

We are contracted and sell our milk through Muller which is collected every day, but 80% of the milk collected is sold to Morrisons and the dairy unit is given an extra 1p per litre sold to Morrisons. 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.