Tech the next step on the road to working more efficiently
As labour shortages emerge as a big issue for the dairy sector, more milk producers are turning to technology to ease the burden of expansion, writes
graze and take silage cuts off just a mile from the house.
A further 50ac located around seven miles away has been turned into an outfarm for the younger stock.
“Cow flow was the problem. It was a nightmare. There was no meal feeding in the parlour and it was hard to get them in and out with the numbers. The yards were too small — it was torture,” he said.
After talking about it for a year, he decided the doubleup parlour fitted best as they did not want to have to bring the cows across the road for milking.
John said he contacted David Pearson from Pearson Milking Technology based in Athy, Co Kildare, and explained he wanted a “one-man operation”. “I wouldn’t be building again so I wanted it all to go in from day one,” he said.
“When I was talking to David he explained because you are on your own the Auto ID tag would help and I might as well do the heat detection as well. The tag was twice the price but it takes out some of the observation work,” he said.
John is now in a partnership with his mother Mary and wife Lisa which doubled the maximum eligible investment to €160,000.
“I focused the grant on the milking machine and not on the building work as I wouldn’t have had the planning permission in time for the application,” he said, adding he opted to do a lot of the concrete and physical building work himself.
“I only got word that I’d been approved on December 10 last and the cows were due to calve around January 15.”
He said they pushed forward with the building and installation works. “I had an eight-unit mobile out in the yard milking until February 14 and I was only milking once a day as it took five hours. I don’t mind coming home in the morning to milk anymore, I don’t have to leave the pit. It is a lot less stressful on the cow and operator.”
He opted for a 16-a-side,