Mike Allwood
Mike Allwood
Mike Allwood is owner-
occupier of a 82ha
(200-acre) farm near
Nantwich, Cheshire. The 175-
cow dairy herd block calves
during May and June. Mike is
also director of Farm Produce
Marketing, based on the
farm, which manufactures
and sells Orchard Maid frozen
yogurt, and puts packs of
Cheshire milk onto airline
breakfast trays.
SOME farmers say they do not have a problem with flies in the milking parlour. I wish we were so lucky. When I did the milking I used to dread the period from August to the middle of October when normally mild mannered cows turn into she-devils, depositing the unit on the floor whenever ones back is turned and spraying manure everywhere. No matter how patient and understanding I tried to be, I invariably ended the milking in a rage and went into the house to vent my spleen on my quite undeserving wife.
The first solution to the problem was to saturate the atmosphere with fly spray, which was quite successful but I did start to wonder how long I was going to survive when I spent five hours a day all summer breathing in stuff which is designed to kill things.
Then along came spray-on and spot-on insecticides which one at least doesnt have to breathe, even if the poor cows have to absorb them into their skin. We still use spot-on but it doesnt work very well, so we needed some other way to stop the flies getting to the cows at milking time.
The next answer was to put water sprays at the entry and exit points of the parlour, which do work extremely well but the pesky varmints will get in through any nook and cranny and we have put a lot of effort into plugging up all the little gaps.
Current practice is to saturate the parlour with fly spray just before the cows enter, then turn on the water sprays to stop any more flies getting in. We also have a big fan which creates a draught along the pit.
The problem with the water sprays is that they use a lot of water, which we have to buy and then spread on to the fields. It seems to me that somebody should have thought up a better solution to fly control by now. Has anybody heard of one?n
Keeping flies out of the parlour has been pre-occupying Mike Allwood. While current practice is to use fly spray before milking and water sprays at the entrance and exits, it involves a lot of water, which is expensive and must be disposed of.