Mobile Milking Parlour
Why build a Mobile Milker?
We received funding from Innovate UK to develop a solar powered mobile milking parlour over a six month period. This research and development project allowed us to research what was out there and build something that would work on our hill farm in Wales. From the beginning of the project we knew we wanted it to run off solar when the weather allows.
We have created plans that can be downloaded so others can use this design. We have also made a parlour insulation guide that will be useful to anyone setting up a parlour without previous knowledge.
Milking bales have been around since the 20’s thanks to their inventor Arthur Hosier. He designed a system where the parlour moved to the herd, they had a lower infrastructure investment for the farmer and in his book on the subject ‘open air dairiying’, he wrote about the health benefits to the cows spending more of their time in an outdoor system. Sadly these milking bales fell out of fashion in the 50’s and 60’s, with capital grants encouraging farmers to build larger static parlours, concrete yards and indoor barn systems. There are farms like the Open Air Dairy in the UK that are currently milking using a mobile milking parlour.
If you don’t already know Dyfi Dairy, and you’ve made your way here through a google search, you won’t know why the idea of these old milking bales are exciting, so let’s get into it. As a first generation, tennant farmers we have had lots of experience setting up parlours on various patches of land. The cycle of build, move, build is incredibly costly and I understand why it can be a barrier to entry into the industry. Our current farm is a 117 acre hill farm ranges from 150m to 250m above sea level in Wales. Converting it to a dairy has it’s challenges, one of those being how to make the shape of our farm work with our desire to rotationally graze our herds. Currently the spring summer grazing is at the other end of the farm from our yard space and electricity meaning every morning we add time to our milking by having to walk them back and forth the pasture.
This brings me to the next benefit of a mobile milker, it allows us to graze the herd in a way that’s beneficial to the land. One of the most impactful ways the dairy industry can cut it’s carbon footprint is by reducing it’s inputs and sequestering carbon. I want to be clear that sequestering carbon isn’t a simple practice, it doesn’t just happen when you graze animals. Sequestering carbon will look different on different patches of land and requires an adaptable grazing system that changes with the season, soil and stocking densities. A mobile milker will help us in our goal to create this adaptive system with the aim of increasing soil carbon and biodiversity by unlocking large areas of the farm. Designing the parlour to run off solar will also help us mitigate our impact.
You can see why I’m exited about this project for Dyfi Dairy but what does it bring to the industry? For me it comes back to how hard the cycle of setting up is for new entrants or for farms looking to diversify. To help others we have decided to make the plans for this parlour available so anyone can recreate it.
There have been a lot of people who’ve been generous with their skills and knowledge during the build. Aled Rees, Ben at Mill Dairy Service, Dewi from E I Lewis and Sons and Jason and team from Wilks Associates.
We would not have been able to do it without you guys! Huge thanks.