During the week, Agriland made the trip down to Pallasgreen in Co. Limerick to visit a new 16-unit parlour on the farm of Joe Hayes.
Joe, alongside his father Michael, mother Mary and wife Katie, operates a spring-calving system which sees him milk 90-100 cows.
At the time of Agriland’s visit, just a third of the milking herd were still going through parlour, with the rest dried off and getting a well-earned break.
Up until September of this year, and for the past 40 years, cows on the farm were milked through what was first a 4-unit parlour and then eventually a 6-unit parlour.
In 2008, Joe came home full-time to farm alongside his father and since then, they have been putting plans in place to modernise the farm.
This all came to fruition over the past 18 months, with a new parlour and cubicle shed now standing side by side on the farm.
Speaking to Agriland inside the new milking parlour during the week, Joe said: “My father was milking in the old 6-unit parlour for the last 40 years and I came back full-time in 2008 and milked in it up until this year.
“It was a great [Boumatic Gasgoigne] machine and served us very well. The only problem with it was it was too small and inefficient for the scale that we had gone to.
“My father, up until I came home full-time, was milking 40 cows, but since 2008 we have expanded and more than doubled the size of the herd.
“Milking time was killing us in the old parlour. If I had to be somewhere in the morning say at 8:00p.m and no one was around to milk the cows, and I would be gone for a few hours, I’d have to get going for cows before 4:00a.m to have them milked, washed down and back to grass before I’d have to go at 8:00a.m.
“I have a young family as well and I had to look at creating more time for them as well – so a number of factors came into play when deciding it was time to improve on what we had on the farm.”
Going greenfield
Joe looked and flirted with the idea of extending the old parlour, but after talking with Aidan Kelly of Agri Design and Planning Solutions (ADPS) – who designed and carried out the planning for the new dairy unit – it was thought that going down that route could bring more problems and headaches.
Space would also be an issue, as the size of the collecting yard would also have to be increased.
This then led Joe to decide to expand the farmyard which saw him sacrifice the nearest paddock to the yard and build his new parlour and also cubicle shed there.
Speaking about the decision to go with a greenfield site, Joe said: “In reality, it made the most sense.
“We thought about doing up the old parlour but after chatting to Aidan, when I had the amount of building work that needed to be done, it would have been easier go with a greenfield site and have a tidy modern set up rather than extending on from old sheds – it could have led to headaches.”
Parlour design
Looking at the design of the new parlour, the entire build itself – from the bulk tank room to the collecting yard – stretches 43.2m long and 12m wide.
At the front of the build, the bulk tank , plant room and storage area can be found. This area measures – in total – 12m long and 4.8m wide.
The bulk of the shed comprises the parlour and the handling area. The parlour itself measures 19.2m long and 5.65m wide. Handling facilities – which contain holding pens and a crush – and an exit race can be found on the other side of the parlour. This area measures 6.1m wide and 19.2m wide.
The collecting yard at the rear of the building was designed to hold 115 cows.
Note: Some of the details in the drawing differ from what is actually on the farm today and what can be seen in the pictures.
‘Don’t go too far from home to buy a parlour’
One of the first things Joe said when talking about his new parlour was if he was to give any advice to a farmer going buying a parlour it is; to not stray too far from home to buy one.
This was a big factor from him when deciding on going with another Boumatic Gasgoigne milking parlour.
Speaking about his decision to go with a Boutmatic Gasgoigne parlour, Joe said: “Mike Franklin of Franklin Dairy Services installed the 4-unit parlour for my father 40 years ago and he installed the 16-unit one we bought in September.
“I did price other parlours but at the end of the day, having a good back-up service is critical in this line of work.
“Without it, the money you saved on buying a cheaper parlour will be gone on precious time lost waiting for a serviceman to come to fix a problem who could be an hour or two drive away from here.
“Mike [Franklin] is based literally over the road in Pallasgreen and has put in a couple of Boumatic Gasgoigne parlours in this area in recent times, so to have peace of mind that if something did go wrong or needed fixing, Mike is close by and has plenty of experience to deal with it.”
The 16-unit parlour
In order to leave himself with options going forward, Joe installed a 16-unit parlour but left room to increase it to 20-units if he wanted to down the line.
Having spoke and dealt with Paul Kingston of Boumatic Gasgoigne Melotte, they decided on going with a 16-unit parlour.
It’s a well kitted out machine and considering Joe and his father came from a parlour that had no features that would be seen in modern parlours today, the new parlour is a massive jump and a big change for them.
The 16-unit Boumatic Gasgoigne Melotte swing-over milking parlour the Hayes landed on comes with automatic cluster removers (ACRs), auto-wash system, plug-in dumpline stations, 2×2 pulsation with lightweight clusters, GMI+ milk yield indicators, an air-star vacuum pump system and Cashman Feeders.
Joe also opted for a zigzag rump rails, manger feeders and a guillotine gate to the front of the parlour and then the push across gate to the back of the parlour.
Speaking about the new 16-unit parlour, Joe said: “It’s a huge upgrade to what we had and a joy to work in.
“The cows took to it pretty much instantly. We had thought that they would find it a big change and not take it to it straightaway, but they did.
“The parlour itself has a lot of features and coming from a parlour that had none, it’s a big step.
“Even small things things such as how much lighter the clusters are in new parlours took us by surprise. Technology has come on so much. My father would have said all along that a heavy cluster was considered a good thing as it was thought it milked out the cow better.
“Now, it the opposite thinking and the fact that the clusters are lighter now will hopefully spare any further wear and tear on the shoulders.
“The feeding system, dumpline, ACR’s and everything else about the parlour has made our life so much easier and has knocked so much time off milking.
“The air-star system we put in is also more energy efficient which will help to keep the electrical bill down. It’s also very quiet in here at milking time because of it.
“Before, you’d have to set aside two and a half hours for milking. In September, when we moved into it, and cows were producing a good bit of milk still, we had the milking done [six rows of cows] in 55 minutes, with a half an hour then for washing up.”
‘All in one’ dairy unit
Joe has an ‘all in one’ facility, as beside the parlour, once cows exit, they make their way down the exit race which has a crush and holding pens beside it.
The crush over beside the old parlour had seen better days and like many farmers that have built similar dairy units, Joe put in a similar handling facilities.
In time, he hopes to install a drafting system, but he had to call a halt to his spending for now and says that in a few years, he will look at putting one in.
And at the back of the parlour, a collecting yard with a slatted tank at the back can be found – which measures 12m long, 4.8m wide and 2.75m deep. The collecting yard, Joe said can hold up to 115 cows.
Cost
Building began in 2020 with John and Donie Gleeson completing the concrete work and James McMahon standing the shed for the parlour. Declan Laffan carried out the electrical work while Tom Quinlan did the plumbing. Mike Franklin of Franklin Dairy Services installed the parlour while Condon Engineering supplied the exit race and crush.
Joe applied for a grant under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS II) in which he was eligible for and awarded a 40% grant.
This, along with reclaiming the VAT, helped to bring the cost of the build.
The overall cost of the new dairy unit came to €265,500.
However, when the value of the grant is deducted and the VAT reclaimed, the project is standing to Joe at €210,000.
Speaking about the decision to go ahead and build the new parlour, Joe said: “I’m very happy I decided to go ahead and put in the new parlour.
“We had all the building work done by January and I was lucky we did. From talking to the builders over the course of 2021, the cost of doing it would have increased by up to €50,000.
“Its a joy to work in and has made life so much easier for everyone involved and will now be easier to get in help at weekends too,” Joe concluded by saying.
