Aarslevgaard Farm decides on a DairyMaster 2x18 swing-over

Aarslevgaard Farm decides on a DairyMaster 2x18 swing-over

Using milking robots didn’t work out at Jørn Friis Møller’s farm, Aarslevgaard. Now, the farm’s 500 cows are milked using a new DairyMaster 2x18 swing-over milking system. ‘The system is simple, reliable and cheap to operate and maintain’, he says.

Milking just needs to work from day to day. Jørn Friis Møller has learnt this the hard way. He is the 14^th generation on Aarslevgaard, his family farm at Aarslev near Rødekro. Since 2002, the herd here has grown step by step from 60 cows in a tie-stall shed to the current 500 Holsteins in modern parlours with resting areas.

For years, all heifers from as young as 3 months have been farmed out to a neighbour. The farm’s 150 hectares of land are worked by some neighbours and a machine pool – apart from the ploughing, which Jørn Friis Møller’s father takes care of.

‘Within a few years after 2002, we got to the point where we were milking 200 cows in a 2x10 herringbone milking parlour. “Then, when we expanded to 250 cows in 2007, we installed two milking robots for the 110 cows on one side of the feeding table’, says the Southern Jutland-based farmer.

More milking robots

In 2008, he built another building, making room for a total of 500 cows. Initially, he settled for putting about 120 cows in one side of the new building, where two robots were installed to take care of milking. By now the herd numbered about 360 cows, 230 of which were milked by four robots while the rest were still milked in the herringbone parlour.

However, the milking robots were not a success at Aarslevgaard. By 2011, all the robots were having problems so serious that it was affecting milk quality.

‘The increased yield we’d expected from robot milking never materialised. Also, many of the cows became three-teated’, Jørn Friis Møller recalls.

Out with the robots

‘So we took the big decision to take out all four milking robots. That meant we again had to milk all the cows in the 2x10 herringbone parlour where we’d been milking some of the cows all along. To increase capacity, it was extended to a 2x12’, he continues.

‘The following year, in 2012, we were getting in a mess with the milking because there wasn’t enough collection space’, explains Jørn Friis Møller.

‘We solved the problem by renting a MobiStar 2x12 swing-over mobile milking parlour from Milcotec to milk some of the cows with. The mobile parlour was installed where the milking robots had previously been’, he says, and continues:

‘We milked 100 of the cows with the MobiStar. It took over an hour per milking, and we did it that way for three and a half years.

The herd grows to 500 cows

Early in 2016, the mobile milking parlour was taken out again to save space. The sheds were now completely filled, bringing the herd up to 500 cows. All of this large herd were now milked in the 2x12 herringbone parlour – and three times per day, at that.

‘Now we were milking for three times six hours a day – plus washing. In purely practical terms we were certainly able to make it work, but it caused too much commotion in the shed’, says Jørn Friis Møller.

The herringbone milking system was therefore replaced in December 2017 with a brand new DairyMaster 2x18 swing-over milking system from Dairy System Danmark ApS. It was built in the existing milking shed and installed between milkings.

‘Now, we save two men up to an hour and a half at each milking. And the DairyMaster milking system is simple, reliable and cheap to operate and maintain’, says Jørn Friis Møller.

Milking cluster flushed after each cow

Every single milking cluster is flushed clean and blown dry each time a cow has been milked. The system works in such a way that each pulsator drives two clusters. The way the pulsators work, incidentally, is that they provide suction and massage to all four teats at once.

The DairyMaster milking system is equipped with advanced milk meters that are approved for yield recording. The cows’ yield is logged in the milking plant’s management system.

‘The system is designed so that we keep milk from “cell-count” cows separate. We make use of this and feed the calves on those cows’ milk. The result is that we can maintain high quality in the milk that goes to the dairy. And that way we save about DKK 10,000 per month on milk substitute’, says the Southern Jutland-based milk producer.

An automatic selection pen has been installed adjoining the milking plant for cows that need to be separated for the inseminator or vet.