The Challenge:

Shed Inefficiencies Hinder Farm

This 750 dairying operation had issues with their entire farm efficiencies due to an existing milking shed operating poorly. The operation struggled around calving and mating due to having two staff per day rostered to the shed and only one other on farm duties.

They came to Morrison Agri seeking an assessment of their milking system to identify weaknesses

The Morrison Agri Solutions:

Morrison Agri Revamps Milking System

Morrison Agri soon identified flow and capacity problems in the in-line milking

system at Dromore Downs and remedied them by:

Replacing existing inaccurate cup removers with Waikato brand ‘S’ cup Removers operating on a MaxT system with an AM/PM switch
Installed the Autostart feature which allows the milker to simply lift the claw and then apply the cups. In a normal milking situation with autostart, there are no buttons to push or flick. The manual switch is still fitted to the bail post to allow for the manual milking option (red cows, kicking cows, colostrum cows) and wash mode.
Installing Waikato brand 320 claws which allow for higher milk volumes and flow rates with more stable vacuum properties.
Replacing all rubber ware components to the claws
Upgrading the entire deck port system, which vastly improved cluster alignment and milk flow

This large milking shed upgrade required a large amount of engineering work

and detailed planning

The Outcomes:

Increased Efficiency, Reduced Labor Needs

The milking system upgrade was so successful it immediately improved efficiencies through the shed, which flowed out to the farm, much to the delight of its off-farm owner.

Milking has been reduced to a one person operation, freeing up a team member for other work. Faster milking and higher throughputs immediately improved knock-on efficiency throughout the farm and resolved the problems the management was seeking to identify.

Anecdotally, the farm team has concluded that a reduced milk cell count since the upgrade, is solely due to the introduction of modern, efficient milking equipment.

Time spent in the shed improved drastically and the staff was relieved of overly burdensome milking routines.

Morrison Agri’s Paul Morrison says an important takeaway from this upgrade is that you don’t have to know what the problem is before you ask for assistance.