As the expansion of the dairy industry in Ireland continues, Pearson Milking caught up with Percy Mills who has been in the dairy industry for six years now, to see how he started his journey and how he has got on so far.
Percy Mills, farming with his wife in Kilcullen, Co. Kildare, has been in the farming industry for 20 years; but in the last six years he has changed the farm over to a dairy enterprise.
“We have a 52ha farm here milking 180 cows on a grass-based system.”
As Percy had existing sheds that he thought would be useful to incorporate the milking parlour, he went to a number of milking equipment suppliers to get advice on his path into dairy.
“We started off looking at different parlours and sizes and what sheds suited for the parlour and we went with a sequential Bailing 85 degrees – it fitted the right size and the width of the shed.
“We did the business plan and went to Pearsons then and a few other companies and listened to what they had to say.”
For the parlour Percy went with Pearson Milking Technology, which is an Irish company. Founded in 1948, the company is 72 years in business and Ireland’s longest established milking equipment manufacturer with its headquarters based in Athy, Co. Kildare.
“Pearson’s gave me good advice on cow flow, not only on the parlour but on other things in the yard as well. They showed me how to design the yard. I had an idea where things were going to be but had no idea how to do it – where to put slurry tanks, cubicles, other things like that,” he explains.
“They were able to picture it in a few years’ time as well where I was only able to think in the moment.”
Pearson SmartTag heat detection
Once he got up and running and settled into the dairy routine, another item on Percy’s list was heat detection collars.
“I got heat detection collars on the cows purely as I wasn’t milking all the time and I wanted to know about how the cows were, if there was a sick cow, the breeding and to learn their 21-day cycle,” he explains.
As with most milking equipment, the Pearson SmartTag heat detection is linked to an app for your phone, tablet or PC to monitor the herd 24/7, 365 days of the year. It provides the most accurate heat detection and health monitoring in the world. Easy access and usability from the app creates an accurate and unique trouble-free user experience.
The Co. Kildare farmer added: “I wouldn’t have got on as well as I would have liked in breeding.
Getting into cows and never having an animal before that, so it was a big learning curve for me and these really did help and if you do the sums like they are actually making you money. They are a big expense at the day but they saved me and I have a very good fertility rate right now.
“With the collars I have an app on the phone and tablet and you can check the cows at any time of the day and when the cows come in range of the parlour you get notified with emails of cows that are in heat.
“If there is a cow sick or anything like that it comes up if she is not eating. Why is she not eating? She is either lame or has mastitis,” he explains.
You can track individual animals and take preventative action if necessary, always knowing the current state of health of your animals.
The heat detection system is also linked into the Pearson Automatic Pro-Select Drafting unit. The Pro-Select System will automatically draft out cows that are in heat. It also has the ability to offer a minimum of two-way up to a maximum of five-way drafting.
“I also have the auto-drafter as well, so cows that are bulling, it pulls out all the cows that are ready for AI for me.”
The advice and honesty from the long-established company was one of the main reasons Percy went with Pearson’s offering.
A wealth of knowledge came with Pearsons. That made life a lot easier to make the transition.
“Pearsons were just that bit better,” he noted.
Further information
To view Pearson Milking Technology’s full brochure, just click here
