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Farm/dairy name: Walsh Farm
Owners: Mike and Geraldine Walsh
No of dairy cows: 80
Milking system: DeLaval herringbone stall 50° with MidiLine™ milking system
Number of milkings per day: 2
“There is just no comparison between the old plant and our new DeLaval parlour. DeLaval is the best milking system.”
Mike and Geraldine Walsh have a 135 acre farm which supplies an average 1200 gallons of milk to Kerry Plc dairy annually. To ensure a good lifestyle while still maintaining high relative milk production, the family decided to install a 14-unit MidiLine™ milking system with swing-over arms and DeLaval herringbone stall 50º. The couple are happy with their choice today and say their children - Michael (14), Cathal (12), Róisin (9) and Gearóid (5) - are proud of the new milking facilities.
Mr Walsh did all the new building’s roofing and concreting himself. He adds that “changing from the old plant to the new parlour was a smooth transition”.
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The Walsh’s new plant milks the herd in around 45 minutes compared with two hours or more for their previous six-unit plant. This represents huge labour and time savings for the couple.
Geraldine does a lot of the milking and says it’s no problem. “Milking could not be easier and the equipment is very user-friendly.”
This high tech parlour uses Duovac® to eliminate over-milking and reduce pressure on the milker. The Walsh family were the first in the Kingdom to install this innovative system. With Duovac®, the operation is controlled according to the milk flow pattern of each cow. When the cow is finished milking, the system gently massages the teats at a low vacuum level. The milker is advised when the cow is milked-out, so he or she can remove the cluster accordingly. Milk is collected in a 100 litre (side entry) stainless steel receiver and pumped to the bulk tank for fast, efficient cooling.
Mike is also very pleased with the DeLaval pulsator EP100. He was using the traditional 4x0 pulsation system in his old six-unit milking system but believes the DeLaval EP100 is much gentler on cow's udder and teats. Mike says, "our cows are very content and are milked out fully.” The family have complimented the DeLaval EP100 and master unit with strong but lightweight Harmony® clusters.
Walsh Farm also uses the environmentally-friendly, automatic DeLaval cleaning unit C200 to reduce the farm’s water usage by almost 40 percent. This system also uses less energy and detergents than the farm’s previous cleaning operation.
The Walsh family installed DeLaval electric feeders with fast-feed control, individual/ batch control and an auger system from the meal bin - to further minimise labour and time. Geraldine says “the new feeders are a big advantage and we can individually feed each cow.”
Mr Walsh believes his cows like their new DeLaval herringbone stall 50º, saying “every cow has her own space and there is no bullying”.
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