When milking stretched out to 10 hours every day, Alex and Robert Robertson knew something had to change at their Simpson farm.
That change has now arrived in the form of an 80-bail rotary dairy, cutting the milking period down to two hours in morning and again in the evening.
More than halving the milking time has been good for the cows and the brothers and their four milkers, but the giant new shed has many additional advantages.
“Flexibility is the name of the game,” Alex said. “We wanted something that was easy to use and quick to milk in and we got it.”
The automation, cleaning and safety features are added bonuses – and even the walls are staying clean thanks to the massive set-back zone!
The brothers had been milking in their old 44-bail dairy for the past 21 years.
“We decided milking was getting a bit long at 10 hours a day,” Alex said.
“At one stage we were putting through 1200 cows in a 44-bail dairy and it was too long. Everyone was getting tired.”
The old dairy is being used for lead feeding cattle prior to calving but the new dairy is taking pride of place, but it could have been superseded by a barn.
The brothers are still keen to get a barn, but some sage advice from a bank manager set the dairy as the priority.
“We both wanted a barn but could see that the dairy was more of a pressing issue in terms of the long hours for staff,” Alex said.
“We went to the bank manager and he advised us to build the dairy.”
They still want a barn but it might be a couple of years away.
“It would be good for ease of handling with big numbers,” Alex said.
“The cows are happy if they get spoon fed all the time. If you get a terrible day, I don’t like to be out in the rain or heat and they don’t like it either.
“We’ve got all the equipment to do barn feeding and there are a lot of people around who have proven they make a lot more milk with a barn, but we’ve put it on hold for a while.”
Planning for the new 80-bail dairy started about two years ago.
“We wanted to create a system that didn’t make the mistakes of the old dairy in terms of keeping it clean, and making it flow easily,” Alex said.
“In the old dairy, the walls were too close to the table so you were forever cleaning them. The first thing was to make the walls 4-5 metres away from the table so it took that cleaning problem away.
“The second thing was to fully enclose the table so no effluent gets inside making it easier to clean and one less job to do.”
Although Alex built the old dairy, this time they wanted to outsource the task and turned to GreenCon based in Cobden. GreenCon managing director James Green showed them a recent construction and they were keen to emulate it.
“We liked it and said we want something like that but bigger,” Alex said.
“I would have been happy with 60 or 70 bails but Rob saw dairies in Tasmania and spoke to other farmers and they said make sure you build the right size because everyone grows bigger after you build it.”
They had already experienced such growth, having started with 320 cows in the old dairy.
“It was going to cost more but would be worth it in the long-term,” Alex said.
“We wanted a table that was easy to run, easy to clean and easier to train people if we have backpackers. We wanted it simple, fast and efficient.”
Then there was the matter of the setback.
“The dairy James showed us had three-metre setback but I wanted five,” Alex said.
“He said we were going a bit big so we compromised to 4.5 metres. I just didn’t want shit on the walls. You’re going to spend time in the dairy so you’ve got to make it comfortable. You don’t want something where you hate going to work every day.”
They looked at robotics but ultimately decided to stay conventional.
“We felt we would need a barn and 18 robots for up to 1400 cows,” Alex said.
“Here we’ve got a shed up and running for $3.5 million whereas the robots and barn would have cost us in excess of $10 million.
“We had the staff and figured it would be easier to retain staff if we had a good set up that they like to milk in.”
Milking on the new rig started in July and after the first day, the cows felt right at home.
A lot of the problems from the old dairy have disappeared – such as cows slipping off the edge of the table, lifting their heads and knocking equipment.
There’s no slipping in the yards thanks to a new grooved surface, or on the exit ramp thanks to a flat surface.
“They seem very calm,” Alex said.
“We don’t have trouble getting them on; if anything, we have trouble getting them off.
“The shed flows really well. We haven’t had any trouble since we started. Milkings are now down to two hours, or even a bit less.”
The Jantec dairy system records fat, litres, protein and cell count, and a coding system flashes white to show when cows are on heat and red if they are on antibiotics and their milk has to be separated.
If a cow doesn’t milk out to its average, it will send the cow around again.
“It’s very simple,” Alex said.
“In the other dairy, the staff would have to put in codes and it would take ages to get someone trained. Here someone can learn within five minutes.”
In just two months, production has lifted, the cell count has improved and there’s a slight reduction in mastitis.
The cows are sprayed with iodine before they go on the table and 10 seconds after being milked. The spray is mixed automatically in the adjoining chemical room.
“We hardly have to do a thing,” Alex said.
“Once, they’re cupped, we just stand around and watch them. They look like normal milking machines but they do a lot of stuff you don’t realise.”
“They draft automatically, spray automatically and any unwell cows are drafted automatically. It’s streamlined everything.”
There are two races for the cows to enter, though this can be reduced to one.
Cleaning and maintenance are also controlled with equipment and rubber wear on the outside of the table. There’s no oil with the rotary running on nylon rollers.
An overhead platform allows for safe observation and any repairs that may be needed.
The vats are enclosed for safety and cleanliness and there’s a big staff kitchen and even a shower.
The large new yards are flanked by three big silos, with capacity to add three more as cow numbers grow.
“We’re currently around 900 but just starting to calve again and will probably peak at 1100 to 1200,” Alex said.
“GreenCon, Walsh Plumbing, Newcome Electrical, Yarroweyah Engineering (platform), Southwest Dairy (milking machines) and Coweld engineering (feed system) did a great job,” Alex added.