DAIRY MANAGEMENT
The simple solution to potable farm water Dairy farmers Andy and Liz Hayes milk 1,000 cows on their farm in the Hakataramea Valley near Timaru. Water to the farm is spring fed. A member of the Lower Waitaki South Coastal Canterbury zone committee, Andy is constantly involved in looking at strategies to improve water for the community. He’s looked at several different solutions but considered every one of them way too expensive for treating just his milking plant water source, which tested positive for E. coli, making him non-compliant.
Andy had been on temporary water exclusion for 3 years before installing GEA | FIL’s Farm Chlor Chlorinator and within a week of installation, he got the all-clear from his Farm Dairy Assessor – the water was potable. The Farm Chlor Chlorinator provides farmers with a simple, affordable solution to quality water. It’s a water disinfection system installed into the main water line between the water pump and water tanks. The water passes through the Chlorinator and is treated with a pre-set amount of chlorine before being stored or dispensed. Based on where you install the Chlorinator, you can treat the entire farm including stock drinking water or just the dairy. The system treats water to approved drinking water standards, suitable for human consumption.
The reasons behind MPI demanding (farm) water that meets Farm Dairy Water Standards is driven from food safety perspectives. Water may fail because of E. coli (which often comes from bacteria in animal faeces), clarity or turbidity (haze, sediment or cloudiness in the water) or colour (could be from leaves and dirt in streams or iron in water).
GEA | FIL Chlorinator rods, used in the Chlorinator, are the only dry chlorine approved by MPI for use in dairy sheds.
From a dairy processor’s perspective, it’s important that water used to clean the milking plant meets MPI’s standard as it could come into contact with milk, affecting quality. Having non-compliant water, Andy was treating his water manually with chlorine and paying $100 a month in penalties. It was GEA | FIL Area Manager Kirk Falconer who introduced Andy to the concept of the Farm Chlor Chlorinator. “I noticed the big red sticker on Andy’s hot water cylinder and recommended he try the Chlorinator to make the water potable. He took one look at the very
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simple design, ordered it immediately and then installed it himself.”
For Andy, the Farm Chlor Chlorinator was the most practical option he’d seen. “There are no other products on the market like it,” he says. “It’s relatively cheap to buy, simple to install and cheap to run. “When we installed the Chlorinator, we also cleaned the tank. A week later we were off exclusion. An added bonus was that Fonterra refunded me $1,200 for fixing the water issues, so effectively a third of the cost was gone.” Pleased with the performance of his Farm Chlor Chlorinator, Andy is now
| Dairy farmer, Andy Hayes.
an advocate for the system. “It’s the cheapest solution to potable water. We go through about 5,000 litres of water a day for the shed and plant, the chlorine rods will only cost us about $250 a year.” For further information, contact your Farmlands Technical Field Officer or the friendly team at your local Farmlands store. Article supplied by GEA | FIL.
Farmlands Co-operative Society Limited | © December 2016. All rights reserved.
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