Coming up next in our Back In Focus series is a visit back to Thomastown Golden in Co. Tipperary, to chat to dairy farmer Eoin Nagle about his new dairy unit.
Eoin, in partnership with his father Liam, milks a herd of 150 predominately Friesian and some Ayshire cows, on 48ha of what can only be described as not only good-quality grassland, but scenic ground – with the Galtee Mountains in sight.
The Nagles, up until April of this year, were milking their herd of cows through a 12-unit parlour; however, like so many other dairy farmers, once milk quotas were abolished cow numbers started to creep up and the parlour and operators started to come under pressure.
With less time being spent getting jobs done around the farm and more time being spent in the pit, the decision was taken in 2019 to look at putting in modern milking facilities.
Not only that, but with a collecting yard that was like an “obstacle course” and the existing handling facilities on the opposite end of the farm, the Nagles wanted to streamline the farm and make life easier for themselves – so it was decided to look at building a new dairy unit encompassing a parlour and handling facilities under the one roof, as well as a sizeable collecting yard.
Speaking to Agriland during the week about the need to modernise the milking and handling facilities on the farm, Eoin said: “In terms of the old milking parlour, I was fair sick of milking in it.
“It was taking the guts of two and three-quarter hours to milk the cows in it and after you’d be finished milking in the morning, you would be quite tired and, really and truly, the enjoyment was gone out of milking the cows.
“On top of that, the parlour was very small and we had issues getting cows into the parlor and this was largely down to having a collecting yard that was like an obstacle course.
“Then our main handling facilities were on the opposite end of the farm, so it was just a bit of all over the place and we wanted to try and streamline the farm and make it as efficient as possible and try to increase output.”
What does the new dairy unit entail?
The new dairy unit, built on a greenfield site that Eoin and his father Liam moved into in April of this year, consists of a 24-unit milking parlour with handling facilities all under the one roof, with the bulk tank, washing area and storage space to the side of it and a sizeable collecting yard to the rear of the build.
Back in 2019, when the Nagles decided enough was enough and wanted to build a new dairy unit, they got in touch with Aidan Kelly – of Agri Design and Planning Services – who designed the new build and carried out the planning work.
Eoin said that through relief milking in college and going around to at least 20 farms, he was able to take ideas and, in his head, put together what he wanted. With the help of Aidan, he was able to put his dream onto paper.
Below is a detailed drawing of the new project – which includes the parlour, handling area, collecting yard, bulk tank room and storage area.
The parlour
The Nagles, whose old parlour was DeLaval, decided once again to go with a DeLaval machine – this time however, putting in 24 units.
Rather than going with all the bells and whistles new parlours come with nowadays, Eoin decided to go with what he felt was necessary, and instead spend money elsewhere within the new dairy unit where he felt it was more warranted.
Looking at the spec of the parlour, it’s a 24-unit Midiline ML2100 milking parlour. The main features of the parlour are automatic cluster removers (ACRs), an auto wash system, batch feeders and auto entry/exit gates. A 16,000L bulk tank was also installed, as well as a 16t meal bin.
Eoin decided against putting in a dumpline and milk meters for now as he feels milk recording seven/eight times a year gives him enough information about his cows and what they are producing.
The parlour was sourced and installed by Brett Dairy Services.
Speaking about the new parlour, Eoin said: “It’s a dream. You want to come in and milk in it, like you’d be rearing to go, whereas before with the old parlour you were dreading going into it.
“It’s pure heaven inside in the new parlour. One thing I really like about the parlour is the lightweight clusters.
“In the old parlour, the clusters were heavy and when you would be nearly the guts of five and a half hours in the pit every day, you’d start to feel the weight of them more as time went on.
“I also like the 2×2 pulsation as I feel the cows get milked-out better.
“It’s just overall a nicer environment to work in. It’s a bright and spacious environment to work in and the cows are far happier in it and that’s reflecting in the output we are getting from them.
“There were days in the old parlour where we had awful handlings trying to get cows into the parlour and thankfully, that is now in the past.”
Handling area, drafting system and exit race
On the other side of the parlour lies a well thought out crush, handling area, drafting system and exit race.
Eoin said that a lot of thought went into this part of the build. Once cows leave the parlour, for the majority of the milking season, they will head down the exit race which has a drafting system incorporated into it.
Once a cow is drafted, she is diverted into one of the two holding pens. Eoin can draft cows using the computer before milking or while he’s in the pit milking.
However, for herd testing or if the Nagles want to treat/dose any cows, they have a crush installed to carry out such jobs.
Beside the crush and adjoining the exit race is an artificial insemination (AI) chute. Again, the use of this is in the title, as well as for carrying out other jobs such as clipping cows’ tails.
One important aspect of the layout of this area is the sloped floor – which allows for faeces to runoff down towards the flow channel uder the exit race. Also, to help prevent any cows from slipping while in the handling area and in the collecting yard, the floor surface is grooved.
Another neat feature of the dairy unit is the installation of roller doors at the entrance of the parlour and handling area. The idea behind the roller door is to keep birds out, Eoin said.
Avoiding the problems encountered in the old collecting yard
If you thought the inside of the new dairy unit was impressive, then you’ll be impressed with what Eoin has done with the collecting yard.
As mentioned already, the old collecting yard was described by Eoin as being like an obstacle course and it was causing huge problems for him and his father.
So, in order to improve cow flow and not have to be leaving the pit to get every row of cows, the Nagles decided to install an Alfco backing gate.
The backing gate – sourced from Brett Dairy Services – not only helps to keep cows pushed up towards the parlour, but on its way back down to the rear of the yard, it scrapes down any muck into the slurry tank.
The collecting yard is sloped down towards the tank and the surface grooved – similar to the handling area inside.
Between the parlour and the collecting yard, just over 220 cows can be held.
A wall separating the main collecting yard from the exit race, back out to the main roadway to the paddocks, was also erected.
The reason Eoin went with a wall rather than gates was simply so that cows going into the parlour wouldn’t be distracted by the cows leaving the parlour, heading back out to the grazing platform.
Furthermore, Eoin has two options when it comes to letting the cows back out to pasture. They can either be diverted out the main gateway behind the backing gate, or they can be diverted down a narrow passageway that contains two footbaths.
From the picture (below) you can see girders set up on either side of the collecting yard. In time, Eoin said the plan is to roof the collecting yard.
Cost
With the way the cost of building materials have soared this year, Eoin said that the cost of building the new dairy unit was €30,000 more than what it would have been last year.
The fact Eoin and his father Liam were able to avail of a grant under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS II) helped to lighten the blow of the overall cost.
The entire project is standing to the Nagles at €290,000 plus VAT.
The shed in which the parlour, handling area and bulk tank are home to was sourced and erected by Gleeson Steel and Engineering. Eoin also sourced all the gates and barriers from the Tipperary-based company.
All the concrete work was completed by Kevin Bryon, with the concrete being sourced from Kilsaran Concrete.
Looking back on the decision in 2019 to look at putting in new milking and handling facilities, Eoin said it was the right one to make.
He said: “I have absolutely no regrets. It was the last, big piece of the puzzle really. We had the grazing infrastructure in place as well as winter accommodation for the cows.
“So to tie the whole farm together and complete it really was putting in the new parlour and handling area – and it’s been a dream to work in so far.”
