DAIRY PRYDE TRUST
Page 38
Coast & Country
Two sheds – too easy!
The new Dairy Pryde Ltd shed sits neatly in the landscape near Gore in Southland.
Phil Gerritson and his son Jimmy milk 1200 cows on 440 hectares in the gently rolling hills of Maitland near Gore in Southland. “We came here from Morrinsville in 1996 and bought a 270ha farm which we employed sharemilkers on. “Jimmy moved down in 2010 and began sharemilking with 650 cows,” says Phil. In 2012 Jimmy and Phil bought the neighbouring sheep farm and converted it to dairy. They were milking the 1200 cows through the one rotary shed before building the new dairy to reduce milking times.
The Waikato Milking Systems dairy shed.
This season they plan to milk 550 cows through the new rotary dairy shed and 680 through the older rotary dairy shed. Paul Warren, the builder, from Winton had been recommended to the Gerritsons by Dairy & Pumps, the milking system installers from Gore, who had worked with Paul on several other dairy sheds.
Turn-key offering
“We work in together with Paul to offer the farmer a ‘turn-key’ dairy shed. Between us we organise all the sub-contractors so the farmer can concentrate on running his farm,” says Dairy & Pumps managing director Ken Humphries. Having experienced milking in the original
Dairy Pryde Trust
Background: Looking in the Gerritson’s new dairy shed from the yard.
dairy shed meant Jimmy had a good idea of what he wanted in the new dairy. “Paul was happy to adapt the original plan to allow for the changes I required. The result is a well-built, tidy, easy-to-use practical dairy shed,” says Jimmy. The walls have been made from refrigeration panels, which have an easy to keep clean surface and there is a comfortable office with windows to observe the cows being milked. There are two entrances into the large round yard, which saves the cows turning around. “We have had experience with Waikato Milking Systems machines before and found them easy to use, so we decided to go with what we knew and have installed a 54-bail
A Waikato Milking Systems cluster.
Waikato Milking System, complete with SmartECR automatic cup removers and auto start in this dairy shed,” says Jimmy. The Gerritsons also installed SmartSPRAY, an automatic in-bail teat spray system which is automatically triggered by the SmartECRs once the cow has finished milking.
Manual wash
The system sprays the cow’s udder while the teat orifice is still open. This ensures complete coverage, while maintaining good udder health and helping to prevent mastitis. “We decided on the manual wash system as I think sometimes we are too reliant on automation,” says Jimmy.