PEARCE
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Page 19
Storm paves way for new dairy A tenuous five metres between the edge of the shed and the river below was the catalyst for the new dairy build.
A cinder block base to all external walls is among several design changes to protect the new dairy against flooding.
FIL’s Clint Humphrey reviewing the shed’s dispensing system, which doesn’t require any human handling of chemicals.
plant and equipment installed, and came together well from an electrical perspective. “On modern dairy sheds like the Pearce’s, electrical installation is becoming simpler and simpler in terms of componentry concerned. Everything is designed to connect together.”
Time-saving gate A word-of-mouth recommendation from the engineer who worked on the pipework in the yard led Andrew to install a backing gate from Taranaki firm Michael Bloemen Engineering. While they’ve only had a couple of months milking in the new shed, Andrew says he’s really happy with the gate so far. Fitted with a scraper to remove muck from the yard, and a unique selfcalibration mechanism to help run freely and without jamming up, the gate was another component in Andrew’s plan for a dairy in which one person could milk outside spring. With pre-programmed wash cycles, one touch starts the GEA Milfos iNTEL Wash system. FIL supply the Pearce dairy with detergents and chemicals. FIL area manager Clint Humphrey says the system is designed so
Tru-Test dairy automation solutions manager Gillian Fullerton-Smith.
there is no human handling of chemicals, “which is great from both an accuracy and health and safety perspective”. Another efficiency feature is the dairy’s platform can be used while the plant is being washed thanks to the GEA Milfos 3C gland, which includes a water line as well as the normal air and milk lines. This offers greater flexibility to schedule things like Artificial Breeding without having to wait for the plant wash to finish first, says Andrew.
Intelligent milking Going with GEA milking technology, as well as being price competitive, allowed Andrew to continue the relationship with Ian Mackay from Machinery Maintenance in Wanganui. He’s the local GEA installation partner, and has been servicing the Pearce farm for many years. Ian says milk sensor technology on the GEA automated cup removal system minimises the risk of cows not milking out properly because the threshold can be easily adjusted to suit the conditions. For instance, a higher threshold during peak flow and a lower threshold at other times.
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Andrew expects the shed’s open walls will help keep cows and the milker comfortable as well as make the parlour easy to keep clean. Also helping to keep the dairy clean and hygienic, is the sevenlayer Acraflex wall coating, which is impervious to chemicals and enables muck to be just hosed off, says Frits van Echten from licenced Acraflex applicators Surfatex. The new dairy reuses existing feed pads from the old dairy, so the shed design also took account of this to optimise cow flow. The shed was used for three weeks at the end of last season and cows adapted very well to moving from a herringbone to rotary, says Andrew. “Milking in the new shed this season is going smoothly as well.” “One feature of the whole build is that we’ve been able to do it through the season, and the fact that we could use the old shed while building the new one eliminated some of the pressure associated with a new build,” says Andrew. Walker and Thomas Electrical had a couple of people on-site during a two-month period to wire up the new shed. Walker and Thomas Electrical director Stewart Thomas says the new dairy features the latest electrical technology for the
Tru-Test automation, including automated drafting, was very price competitive compared to other options Andrew investigated.
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