Peter Farrell is milking 250 cows near the village of Donaskeagh, Co Tipperary. He has recently installed a new 50-point E100 DeLaval rotary milking parlour with lots of extras.
One of the extras is the new Evanza milking cluster. This new cluster concept features a cartridge-type liner that can be clicked into place. The clusters also have a top-flow mechanism. According to DeLaval, these clusters reduce milking time by 7%.
Since we got the new parlour we just don’t know ourselves
The new liners last twice as long and can be changed in two minutes per unit, compared to 10 minutes with conventional liners, according to DeLaval.
Rotary
Peter says he decided on the new rotary because milking was taking too long in the old herringbone parlour.
His new rotary parlour has automatic cluster removers, retention bars, milk meters, automatic teat spraying, backing gate and drafting gate among other accessories.
“Since we got the new parlour we just don’t know ourselves. Milking time is down over 50%. Most mornings we’re finished milking well before eight o’clock. We can comfortably do 250 [cows] an hour and in the evening we’re under the hour, we can do it in about 53 minutes. And that’s not racing, we don’t race milking cows,” Peter says.
The price of the Evanza cartridge type liner is about twice the cost of conventional rubber liners.