Rotary parlours are great, especially when they are working. On
my weekend milking, I had that sinking feeling, and sure enough, as
soon as the first 50 cows loaded on to the milking platform, the
main drive came to a grinding halt.
Now I am many things and have been called more besides, but an
engineer I am not. But with an adjustable spanner and a torch I
managed to get it going up to warp factor eight. I am amazed at the
ease of milking a rotary delivers, although to put cows through
quickly requires good technique as there are no automatic cup
removers. The cows have got better on entering the parlour over the
past year, and we can do over 300 cows an hour when at grass.
Now the autumn herd is inside, full up on their ration and
giving about 26 litres, cow-flow has slowed.
We had planned to go self-feed this winter, but as we are
carrying too many cows for the size of feed face, the ration of
30kg maize silage, 20 grass silage and 10kg brewers grains together
with 6kg of blend consisting of 50% wheat distillers, 25% sugar
beet and 25% soya hulls is proving to be popular - must be the
amount of alcohol-related products included!
We have sorted the out-wintering options, with the spring
calving heifers on kale with a few bales of silage on the side, the
autumn heifers on a fodder beet field with bales and the spring
calving cows on stubble turnips and straw, with all the fields
close to buildings so we can pull out the odd cow. Any thin cows
will be inside on self-feed maize silage and hopefully won't be
thin for very long.
Read more from
Clyde Jones or catch up with our other
Farmer Focus Livestock writers.
