Could you milk from a crush?

Feckthis

As above. Say with a portable milking machine and put the milk into a bulk tank manually.

Reggie.

Feckthis wrote: »

As above. Say with a portable milking machine and put the milk into a bulk tank manually.

Often drew a calved cow in the crush. Don't know about full whack milking

Sam Kade

Back in the 70's a few farmers around here put a pipe line running down the crush and milked cows in it until the parlour was built.

mf240

Are you in Vhi? Great way to get broke up.

Greengrass1

Maybe for 2 wks in a spring if your waiting for a parlour to be finished. But no ye couldn't

Muckit

mf240 wrote: »

Are you in Vhi? Great way to get broke up.

Pull out the bottom bar?
I seen those one unit wheelbarrow yokes on dd.

Start milking 12 cows in 3 runs.... hmmm

Put hoops on the outside of the bars and stick gal bucket in them with nuts

Muckit

What is the crack with starting in milking from next year?

With no quota, do you just have to get in contact with the creamery?

Are there dept. Of ag forms to fill out?

_Brian

I know a lad who milked in a shed with essentially a ramshackle parlour with no pit !! It actually was the garage at the back of his house he was using.

My god it looked hard work, much harder than a pipeline.

OP if you have a cubicle shed think of using that. Portable or pipeline setup.

Feckthis

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Maybe for 2 wks in a spring if your waiting for a parlour to be finished. But no ye couldn't

Why not ? Unless there is regulations against it I don't see how you couldn't do it.

Muckit

Reggie. wrote: »

Often drew a calved cow in the crush. Don't know about full whack milking

Was it a line drawing or did you colour it in with crayons after?

A master of the massey ......and the pencil.......wow.

farmerjj

Feckthis wrote: »

As above. Say with a portable milking machine and put the milk into a bulk tank manually.

How come your asking?? Ya you could but would be slow and dangerous+ would not help your TBC

Reggie.

Muckit wrote: »

Was it a line drawing or did you colour it in with crayons after?

A master of the massey ......and the pencil.......wow.

Jaysus you woke up on the right side of the bed didn't ya.

Ya must have got some snuggle time your that happy

simx

mf240 wrote: »

Are you in Vhi? Great way to get broke up.

Put tubes up cows in crush before, most are fine but the odd one would have to be abondoned or else your arm I'd be broke, had a few very close ones, and near kicks in the face

bogman_bass

Could you? Yes

Should you? Absolutely not

Deepsouthwest

No

joejobrien

yes it is possible, but if you value your life any bit then the answer is no!!!!

colrow

Feckthis wrote: »

As above. Say with a portable milking machine and put the milk into a bulk tank manually.

Why would you want to sit inside a crush, whilst you were milking ? ;-)

CramCycle

Done it for new born calves that couldn't get in to suck, dangerous though as if she kicked you could easily break an arm. On a long term basis, for actual milking, its a ridiculous idea though, it would break your heart.

mahoney_j

Hope all ye new lads getting Into dairy latch on to this idea,there won't be too many of ye milking after a few months if that's the case and local a&e wards will be full of people been treated for Brocken arms ,head injuries etc.theres low cost and then ideas like this.for someone who wants to dip his feet in dairying to see if its the patch he wants to choose get a mobile parlour,tank you can hitch to jeep/trActor ,an esb supply and 20/30 cows and see how it goes

Pacoa

When I was an ai man a few years ago I visited a farm with a crush inside a shed and it was raised up about three feet off the ground. A pipeline ran down long side it and the fellow was milking about 18 cows with it and seemed to be getting on fine with it so I don't see why it can't be done.

farmerjj

Pacoa wrote: »

When I was an ai man a few years ago I visited a farm with a crush inside a shed and it was raised up about three feet off the ground. A pipeline ran down long side it and the fellow was milking about 18 cows with it and seemed to be getting on fine with it so I don't see why it can't be done.

It can be done, but its not very safe!

Muckit

How is standing down behind any safer? ?

There's a lad called thefunkyfarmer on youtube l watch his videos from time to time. He's dairying over in the uk. Have a look at his setup. Not a crush but not v modern either. No pit.

cjpm

Rump rail prevents the cow kicking back violently. They will still kick a little as we all know. Nothing to stop them in a crush, and if they kick hard while your arms are through the bar you risk broken fingers, wrists or arms.

lakill Farm

Muckit wrote: »

How is standing down behind any safer? ?

There's a lad called thefunkyfarmer on youtube l watch his videos from time to time. He's dairying over in the uk. Have a look at his setup. Not a crush but not v modern either. No pit.

he should learn how to use that hedgecutter

einn32

Muckit wrote:

There's a lad called thefunkyfarmer on youtube l watch his videos from time to time. He's dairying over in the uk. Have a look at his setup. Not a crush but not v modern either. No pit.

He uses the old stall type milking parlour to bail the cows up. Milking about 80 cows. His back must be shot from all the bending! Seems to work fairly well otherwise.

farmerjj

cjpm wrote: »

Rump rail prevents the cow kicking back violently. They will still kick a little as we all know. Nothing to stop them in a crush, and if they kick hard while your arms are through the bar you risk broken fingers, wrists or arms.

+1

Timmaay

mahoney_j wrote: »

Hope all ye new lads getting Into dairy latch on to this idea,there won't be too many of ye milking after a few months if that's the case and local a&e wards will be full of people been treated for Brocken arms ,head injuries etc.theres low cost and then ideas like this.for someone who wants to dip his feet in dairying to see if its the patch he wants to choose get a mobile parlour,tank you can hitch to jeep/trActor ,an esb supply and 20/30 cows and see how it goes

If that's the German milking parlour it's stupid money, something close on 100k for an 8unit. Far better value slapping in any sort of 2nd hand 8/10unit, 10k would go a hell of along way to getting the likes of this installed in an old shed, pit and stalls are about 3 loads of concrete and afew blocks.

milkprofit

mahoney_j wrote: »

Hope all ye new lads getting Into dairy latch on to this idea,there won't be too many of ye milking after a few months if that's the case and local a&e wards will be full of people been treated for Brocken arms ,head injuries etc.theres low cost and then ideas like this.for someone who wants to dip his feet in dairying to see if its the patch he wants to choose get a mobile parlour,tank you can hitch to jeep/trActor ,an esb supply and 20/30 cows and see how it goes

Much cheaper to milk neighbours cows to decide if that what u want to do

Sam Kade

einn32 wrote: »

He uses the old stall type milking parlour to bail the cows up. Milking about 80 cows. His back must be shot from all the bending! Seems to work fairly well otherwise.

I milked with a stall/byre in the 80's with a bucket plant and then a pipeline. Back breaking work when numbers increase
A great way to get covered in cow hairs also. I said when I took over I was putting a milking parlour which I did.

Brown Podzol

Anyone ever milk in a tandem milking parlour? Had one here in the 60's early 70's. Made by Gascoigne. Similar to a crush but with a pit . Doors with troughs slide across in front of the cow. Diagram here.

http://www.fao.org/docrep/s1250e/S1250EAE.GIF

Deepsouthwest

Pacoa wrote: »

When I was an ai man a few years ago I visited a farm with a crush inside a shed and it was raised up about three feet off the ground. A pipeline ran down long side it and the fellow was milking about 18 cows with it and seemed to be getting on fine with it so I don't see why it can't be done.

Think that's more of guy using his parlour as a crush than his crush as a parlour!

Miname

is there seriously that many out there considering small no.s? Milking may pay well but i dont think its going to enough to put yourself through the hardship of milking in a crush.
could a very simple parlour not be put together fairly keen using secondhand equipment and an existing shed, milking one at a time would take forever.

Sam Kade

This looks interesting I bet it costs a quare penny

Sam Kade

Here's a better view

Reggie.

Sam Kade wrote: »

This looks interesting I bet it costs a quare penny

I reckon I could gunter one of them together using and old 20ft shipping container

Sam Kade

Reggie. wrote: »

I reckon I could gunter one of them together using and old 20ft shipping container

A few welding rods and cutting discs and a secondhand parlour

Reggie.

Sam Kade wrote: »

A few welding rods and cutting discs and a secondhand parlour

Don't tempt me

it's taken less :rolleyes:

Timmaay

Miname wrote: »

is there seriously that many out there considering small no.s? Milking may pay well but i dont think its going to enough to put yourself through the hardship of milking in a crush.
could a very simple parlour not be put together fairly keen using secondhand equipment and an existing shed, milking one at a time would take forever.

I think I've said this before, but starting out milking now with the aim to milk anything less than 60 is just a waste of time in my opinion. Yeh there are lads out there now doing it and making money, but they are at a good level of efficiency and have zero borrowings, it would take a new entrant afew years to get to that stage.

Muckit

Why would you consider milking less than 60 a waste? Would a handful of dairy cows not be a better idea for a lot of part timers instead of big numbers of sucklers? At least there would be a turn out of them and if lads didn't go mad sticking in big parlours etc there would be very little extra outlay.

A lad with say 30 sucklers. Sure he'd make more out of 10 dairy cows. Now what big roadways, sheds etc would you need for them? Even if it all goes to sh*t he's not going into the red.

Have them milked in jig time in a small old parlour that nobody wants now. Then off to the day job.

I'd be thinking spend nothing only on a way of milking til the money comes in. Dairy lads thing they know what running things low cost is, but I think beef lads could show them a thing or two. Coming at things from a different angle.

_Brian

Brown Podzol wrote: »

Anyone ever milk in a tandem milking parlour? Had one here in the 60's early 70's. Made by Gascoigne. Similar to a crush but with a pit . Doors with troughs slide across in front of the cow. Diagram here.

http://www.fao.org/docrep/s1250e/S1250EAE.GIF

Worked on a few. I could never understand why these were installed over a half herringbone parlour. Know a few places that had half four or six herring bone parlours and they just seemed to make more sense. From memory I think one lad was milking 40+ in a single sided six unit parlour.
I think the biggest torture I've seen was a lad milking 80+ in a four abrest parlour. Summer milkings were taking near 3 hours.

farmerjj

Muckit wrote: »

Why would you consider milking less than 60 a waste? Would a handful of dairy cows not be a better idea for a lot of part timers instead of big numbers of sucklers? At least there would be a turn out of them and if lads didn't go mad sticking in big parlours etc there would be very little extra outlay.

A lad with say 30 sucklers. Sure he'd make more out of 10 dairy cows. Now what big roadways, sheds etc would you need for them? Even if it all goes to sh*t he's not going into the red.

Have them milked in jig time in a small old parlour that nobody wants now. Then off to the day job.

I'd be thinking spend nothing only on a way of milking til the money comes in. Dairy lads thing they know what running things low cost is, but I think beef lads could show them a thing or two. Coming at things from a different angle.

Why would you wanna milk 10 cows? You still have to buy a milk tank and parlour.Might not be a big expense but your profits are going to be v v small if any.

_Brian

farmerjj wrote: »

Why would you wanna milk 10 cows? You still have to buy a milk tank and parlour.Might not be a big expense but your profits are going to be v v small if any.

Why??
I think the amswer is in Muckits post above. So many 20-40 cow suckler just aren't making money from the stock. If lads are honest they just aren't making anything worthwhile. I'd say €100 a cow would be lucky for a lot of lads.

So change that to 10 dairy cows at €400 a head profit (low end of profit) and your making €4000 of ten cows rather than nothing or feck all. And managing 10 dairy cows is allot less work than 30 sucklers.

The problem is see is getting a collection for such a small volume of milk.
My other wonder is with creameries signing existing customers onto contracts, where does this leave new entrants next year?? Can I ring up and get a supply contract now if I've never milked ?? What the chances f the creamery telling new lads that they have enough summer milk and they only want winter milk from new suppliers.

farmerjj

_Brian wrote: »

Why??
I think the amswer is in Muckits post above. So many 20-40 cow suckler just aren't making money from the stock. If lads are honest they just aren't making anything worthwhile. I'd say €100 a cow would be lucky for a lot of lads.

So change that to 10 dairy cows at €400 a head profit (low end of profit) and your making €4000 of ten cows rather than nothing or feck all. And managing 10 dairy cows is allot less work than 30 sucklers.

1st buy the cow then milking machine then bulk tank(the very basic needs) how many years would it take to make that E4000? I know sucklers are tough at the moment but changing over to milking 10 cows would be crazy.

Timmaay

farmerjj wrote: »

Why would you wanna milk 10 cows? You still have to buy a milk tank and parlour.Might not be a big expense but your profits are going to be v v small if any.

This is just it, once you have a compact well setup spring calving system there isn't much labour different between 10 and 60 cows, both need to be fetched twice a day from the paddock to be milked, both will need a dedicated 6weeks of calving then breeding.

And to be honest my original comment of 60 cows minimum was for full time dairying, we've discussed part time dairying before, it's definitely only a stop gap and if you try to milk and work full time you'll have zero life.

_Brian

farmerjj wrote: »

1st buy the cow then milking machine then bulk tank(the very basic needs) how many years would it take to make that E4000? I know sucklers are tough at the moment but changing over to milking 10 cows would be crazy.

I wouldn't contemplate it but there are lads ready for next spring milking between ten and twenty cows . I know a few myself.
I know one lad who was milking with buckets until last spring and got a five unit pipeline out in for €800 and he's delighted, he's also milking less than 20 cows.

freedominacup

Brown Podzol wrote: »

Anyone ever milk in a tandem milking parlour? Had one here in the 60's early 70's. Made by Gascoigne. Similar to a crush but with a pit . Doors with troughs slide across in front of the cow. Diagram here.

http://www.fao.org/docrep/s1250e/S1250EAE.GIF

There was an auto tandem where I went to college in the UK. Nicest parlour I ever worked in. The stalls were automated to a similar degree to a modern robot stall. Gea have two robots on rails working a ten unit one somewhere on the continent.

Muckit

Ten dairy cows would also eat a hell of a lot less grass/silage too. A few poly reels along by another fence or hedge and viola... you have a roadway. No need for changing piping or water troughs either.

Lad milking 30 cows and working office hours here at work. One thing l've started learning this year and especially from ap2014s postings as annoying as they were is that following the 'best farming practices' doesn't always lead to the best profit.

mf240

Yip keep it simple. For ten to twenty cows if not stocked heavily four or five divisions all coming into the farmyard with a drinker in each and one in the yard. A cheap second hand palour and tank. (Available for peanuts at that size) and a straw bed shed or even a bit of rough land for the winter.

Sale of sucklers should buy the milkers.

lakill Farm

have a few clients who moved from suckler to milk and currently in year 1 of milk . one supplies to Lakeland the other Connaught golds new place

one is milking 15 but caught for quota. going to 30 in spring

while other is at 30 and moving to 36 in spring with hope to be at 50

speaking to both today as it happens and I asked hows cashflow and they said tight as still paying catch up on conversion costs but both looking forward to year 2

trixi2011

freedominacup wrote: »

There was an auto tandem where I went to college in the UK. Nicest parlour I ever worked in. The stalls were automated to a similar degree to a modern robot stall. Gea have two robots on rails working a ten unit one somewhere on the continent.

Had one in the college I went to in ni as well was a bomatic 6 unit tandem

trixi2011

Brown Podzol wrote: »

Anyone ever milk in a tandem milking parlour? Had one here in the 60's early 70's. Made by Gascoigne. Similar to a crush but with a pit . Doors with troughs slide across in front of the cow. Diagram here.

http://www.fao.org/docrep/s1250e/S1250EAE.GIF

Learned to milk in one of these when I was a young fella. We had one operating till about 15 years ago milking about 50 cows was a gasgoine and the very same as the one in the picture .