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Farm/dairy name: Crofthead Farm
Owner: Mark Callander
No of dairy cows: 470
Breed of cows: Ayrshires
Milking system: DeLaval parallel external rotary parlour
Number of milkings per day: Two
“Milking is now a one person operation. We are milking an extra 120 cows but milking time is still halved”
The Callanders are a DeLaval family. Mark’s brother David and his cousin Roger both have DeLaval parlours. Mark installed his new 40 point DeLaval parallel external rotary parlour in April 2002, after 30 years of operating his previous DeLaval parlour. He is “delighted” with his investment.
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Crofthead Farm has an average herd yield of around 8800 kilograms of milk annually, with butterfat at 4.1 per cent and protein at 3.4 per cent.
“Milking is now a one person operation. We are milking an extra 120 cows but milking time is still halved.” Mark says the herd now has “less feet or fertility problems, lower cell counts and our cows last longer”. His herdsmen Ian Fenick and Paul Thurlow take it in turns to milk the cows. Whoever does the morning milking brings in the cows and feeds the calves in the afternoon “so nobody gets bored”. It only takes “a couple of hours to milk the cows” and the ACR system helps ensure they are “never under pressure”.
Mark believes his cows are very content in the new parlour. “The cows are so quiet. It’s a stress-free system and there’s no need for kick bars, plus the Harmony clusters are nice and light”. He says the cutter gate was “a great investment” and adds that he “could not afford not to do it”.
A 20,000 litre DeLaval direct expansion bulk cooling tank has also been installed. This tank has helped reduce the farm’s water, detergent and energy usage per litre of milk.
The herd is fed using the DeLaval ALPRO herd management system together with in-parlour feeders and a TMR.
Mark says he “could not manage efficiently without ALPRO.” He is particularly pleased with how useful this system’s daily attention list is for monitoring “AI and dry off cows; cows to calve, changes in yield, etc”.
Mark plans to expand the herd size to 500 cows and says the operation will “continue to increase milk yield if there are no health problems”.
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