John Moloney and his wife Carmel farm in Shronell, between Tipperary town and Lattin village, alongside their son and daughter, TJ and Rebecca. They are now coming up on seven months of a major upgrade to milking facilities on farm which has dramatically cut down on time spent milking and given John. Located inside the Tipperary border, the farm, which milks 260 cows, welcomed a cohort of farmers to its yard as part of a Boumatic Gascoigne open day to view the new 24-unit parlour that has been in operation since spring of this year.

Out with the old

“I had an eight-unit parlour here, and I was giving 10 hours a day milking between morning and evening milking [collecting cows, wash up etc],” John said.

“I had to wheelbarrow in nuts in to the parlour and bucket them in to troughs.”

Issues also arose with water storage, as soiled water was entering slatted tanks that cows were housed on, putting increased pressure on slurry storage capacity. A tank had to be constructed for the collection of soiled water.

“I thought to myself, ‘why would I spend money and still be no further on [with milking facilities]?’ So I got on to Aidan Kelly of ADPS to give me advice.

“He suggested I was better to bite the bullet and upgrade both storage and milking facilities in one, which is the route that we went. We are fully compliant now with soiled water and slurry storage, and if I am milking myself, it’s four hours now – two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening,” John said.

He also highlighted two other key reasons for the change; difficulty in finding relief milkers to get time away from the farm and making the farm a more tempting place for one of his family to come home and take over in the future.

The parlour

A 24-unit Boumatic Gascoigne parlour was fitted and commissioned in February this year.

Having looked and priced other makes of parlour, Boumatic Gascoigne was the end choice for John for one primary reason: simplicity of use.

“I liked the separate dump line; there is no way waste milk can get to the silo. For someone not up with technology it’s simple to use.” Michael Franklin Dairy Services, Pallasgreen fitted the unit in the back end of 2024/early 2025.

Some of the key features of the parlour are the GMi Milk yield indicators, Guardian Supreme auto wash and an Air Star dry variable speed vacuum pump – something John noted as being one of the main features he likes about the new parlour due to the lack of wearing parts.

Another key feature of the parlour is the Flo-Star Max lightweight clusters. “There is major difference. The old clusters were much heavier; I find these very light,” John said.

Cashman Individual feeders were also kitted out as part of the project, with the ability to batch feed cows and then top up individual high yielders from the pit floor.

A 25,000-litre Liscarroll milk silo completed the major upgrade. Having moved from a smaller bulk tank that struggled to hold even a day’s milk, the new silo is a game changer.

John opted for the silo in lieu of a tank to remove the need to create additional space in the dairy to house it, while the size of the tank leaves great flexibility in milk collection times or future expansion, with the farm now on three-day collections.

Handling area

Running adjacent to the parlour is a roofed handling area. To one side, there is a single-sided crush running along the outer wall, complete with a concrete walkway across it’s length and a semi-automatic skulling gate to the front.

All the gates along the side are easily removed to allow access to a down animal.

Running through the centre of the handling area is the exit race. This is the primary track in which cows exit the parlour and is slatted underneath with a slurry channel directed to the soiled water tank in the collection yard. While cows are still manually drafted, there are plans to incorporate an auto drafter into this race in the future. All steelwork in the handling area was completed by O’Denell Engineering, Emly.

Holding pens are located beside the exit race for artificial insemination (AI), treatment etc. At the bottom of the exit race, a herringbone crush has been installed capable of holding 18 cows, with a backing bar to hold in lesser number.

“The AI man here on farm Sean Barry was very impressed with the herringbone crush. Because it is located on the exit race, cows enter it very easy as they think they are going out to the paddock,” John explained.

Roofed area

The project was designed and drawn by Aidan Kelly of ADPS, Clonmel, Co Tipperary, while O’Dwyer Steel, Dundrum, Co Tipperary supplied and fitted all the steel work and cladding.

The total width of the shed is 19.47m wide, with 8m of this encompassing the handling areas, while the total length is 28.8m. The dairy is located to one side of the parlour, while to the rear of the dairy there is roofed storage area that can be utilised for overflow of calves, straw etc.

The entire width of the shed at the rear of the parlour is clear span, with O’Dwyer Steel fitting their 254mm x 254mm (10” x 10”) square universal column rolled steel joists (UC RSJs) for the stanchion used. These UC section pillars are a good option on portals this big in comparison to using universal beam (UB) sections – once designed and sized correctly they provide a much tidier and neater finish, as walls can be poured flush with the stanchion at 10” width.

These UC RSJs were also fitted in the walls of the collecting yard to allow for future roofing of it should the need arise.

Cement fibre cladding was fitted for thermal control, non-drip properties and longevity, with John noting how much cooler milking in the new versus the old parlour is in the heat of the summer.

Despite the shed not being grant specific, Aidan Kelly advised John to fit safety cages under the clear rooflights now to avoid having to retrofit these in the future if he wished to install solar panels.

Collecting yard and soiled water storage

The collecting yard encompasses 335m² of an area, giving holding capacity for 223 cows, excluding the cows that enter the parlour straight away (48). A double tank with two rows of 14’ 6” slats and measuring 22.73m in length are located at the bottom of the collecting yard for soiled water storage and have a capacity of 465m³, with all the concrete cambered gently towards these tanks by the CJW Civils, Cappawhite, who completed the concrete work.

John was also spoke highly of the work completed by Butler Plant and Agri, Shronell, which completed the ground works and Ger Ryan, Annacarty, who completed all the electrical work on the build.

Comment: top-class finish leading to a more enjoyable lifestyle

It’s like night and day now for John between milking in the old versus the new parlour and as well as the project now making him fully compliant with storage, it also has greatly improved his lifestyle and that of his family. As highlighted in the article, the new parlour not only makes John’s life easier, but also allows him to source relief milkers easier.

The finish on the project is second to none and John was quick to laud praise on all involved.

A special word of thanks must also go to John and his family for opening their farm up to allow farmers to see the superb facilities now in place.