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Farm Manager: Steve Jones (Left)
Programme Manager for Agriculture: Alan Davey
Farm/dairy name: Cannington Centre for Land Based Studies
Owners: Bridgwater College
No Dairy cows: 220
Breed of cows: Holstein
Housing: cubicle building
Milking system: DeLaval 32x32 Herringbone 50°with Alpro
Number of milkings per day: 2
In 1976 a fourteen unit milking parlour was installed at Rodway Farm. Six ago ago this was updated to sixteen units. Recently this proved to be past it’s best for a number of reasons, one of them being the move from Friesians to Holsteins. This meant that the parlour cow standings were too small for the new breed, a common problem all over the country. A second reason was the parlour pit was too small to train students in best milking practice. Steve said “Our aim is to attract young people to a vibrant modern dairy industry and we were starting them in a dark old parlour at 4 o’clock in the morning with the prospect of milking for four hours. It didn’t seem many potential young dairy farmers wanted to do this – and I’m not surprised”
So Steve and his colleagues sat down and did some strategic planning. Their aim was to update the dairy facilities to be able to give excellent study facilities for young people who would like to pursue a career in dairy farming. They felt that the farm should be a centre of excellence and be a commercially viable enterprise. They wanted to prove to students that it was possible to make money from milk despite the bad press given to dairy farming. Programme Manager for Agriculture Alan Davey said “We wanted the students to graduate full of drive and with a very positive attitude to dairy farming” This won the approval of the College Principle and the management team who were 100% behind the project.
The first step was to install a new milking parlour. A DeLaval system was chosen. Steve said “We liked the equipment and saw it as excellent value for money. The local dealer BH White and Son was just up the road and we found them very attentive and very knowledgeable when it came to layout of equipment and milking procedures. We were looking for a dealer who could supply everything connected with the dairy - we liked the idea of a total partnership which BH White and Son have been able to provide”
The thirty two x thirty two DeLaval herringbone parlour with full Alpro system, automatic identification, cow sorting, automatic footbath and adjustable pit floor is state of the art and installation went without a hitch. It has been working since April with 220 Holsteins going through with a herd average of 9,000 litres (Steve says it’ll be over 250 with an average of 10,000 within next 12 months).
His final comments were “We welcome students here who want to make a positive contribution to the dairy industry - we expect them to go home with the aspiration to achieve an efficient dairy enterprise”
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