John Glover
John Glover
John Glover currently milks
65 cows plus followers on a
40ha (100-acre) county
council holding near
Lutterworth, Leicestershire,
having recently moved from
another 20ha (51-acre)
county council farm.
SO SIMPLE a child could use it. It is and he does – the parlour that is – and he is not four until the end of March.
I saw a cluster come off early only to be told: "Ive taken that one off for you, Daddy." (He had pressed the override on the ACR). His other achievement was to let a side of cows out while some were still being milked and of course it had to be a milk recording night. The cows themselves can also operate the vacuum gates – one clever cow let a side out as I was dipping them. I think she licked the control knob enough to turn it.
We only have one cow left to calve, then we have a break until June. Seven cows calved in February producing 10 calves. Three sets of twins were born, the most "productive" cow having triplets last year and twins this year, making five live calves in 11 months.
However milk production is what we are really interested in and that is a different matter. The first cow to have twins was presented to the vet a week later with suspected salmonella (which proved negative) but had retained her cleansing, causing infection and loss of appetite. She did not recover and was sold this week.
The second one also retained her cleansing, developing an infection which needed vet treatment, but is still around although not producing much milk.
The third one was treated with antibiotics as soon as she calved. She is still holding cleansing but does not have an infection, but again is not milking very well.
The total contribution from these three cows is about 30 litres of milk a day and if this does not improve (which does not appear likely) the remaining two cows will be sold.
The rest of the cows that calved in February are milking well with the best ones producing over 40 litres. The cow which had the triplets last year gave 9000 litres in that lactation.
Dry cow management is the key and although it appears adequate for normal calvings it is not for cows under more stress, eg those with twins, and I have got until June to look at ways of improving it. *
So simple a child could use it – John Glovers youngest son has progressed from toy tractors to operating the milking parlour!