fancy new stuff in the milk barn

**gone-a-milkin** · #1 09/16/12, 09:03 PM

As some of you know, the dairy I work on has been undergoing renos for the last year or so.
Improvements! Time savers! Energy efficiency! All sorts of amazing benefits!

Yes, it has been a lot of time under construction.

There is a new holding pen with a flush wash system.
The barn cleaning water goes out to a pond and then you can pump the water up into a huge holding tank and open a valve to rinse the holding pen off.
No more scraping w/ the tractor. Very cool system, assuming there is water to be pumped. Oh, and it is nice once the tank doesnt leak.

But the very newest things are a milk plate cooler and the "on demand" vacuum pump.
The cooler is like a water cooled radiator so that all the milk is chilled to around 50* before it hits the bulk tank.
All that cooling water goes to a water trough just outside the barn so the cows can drink the warm water as they come out from milking.
Then it overflows and goes to the pond and gets reused for washing the holding pen.
IDK how much water it really uses though. It is so new!

Then there is the new vacuum system.
Unlike anything I have ever used before.
When you turn the claws on the pump starts going fast. Then it quiets down once you have full suction.

I can hear a sucking claw at the pump before I can detect which cow it is on.

Very new and I am reserving my judgement until I have gone a whole week with it.
But so far, so good. We have been able to turn the vacuum pressure down quite a bit w/o having a lot of drop-offs.
That should be better for udder health.
The cycling sound of it is sort of like a weedeater instead of having a Mac truck idling right outside.

I am also super curious to see how much more "energy efficient" this will be.

The cows are ALSO getting used to it.

springvalley · #2 09/17/12, 04:31 AM

Do I have to ask, pictures please, don`t get us hooked and leave us hangin. > Thanks Marc

**gone-a-milkin** · #3 09/17/12, 07:09 AM

Imagine a milkbarn that has been under construction for almost a year, plus 100 mostly black and white cows,
plus it has been raining the last few days.
I am too clumsy to go carrying my camera out in those conditions. LOL

The brand new stuff is pretty shiny, but as a whole I wouldn't call it picturesque.
Not yet.

There is still a ways to go to get it winterized.

The herd got to go out in the greengraze yesterday which is over their heads tall (in some places).
I swear you could see them smiling.

It has been a looong summer here.

MDKatie · #4 09/17/12, 07:34 AM

I worked on a large dairy that had the flush system for the alley ways. It was pretty nice. Most of the time I could step up into a free stall when the water came through. Sometimes I couldn't and usually it wouldn't cause an issue. But one time..ugh. One time the water hit my boots just right and came up over tope them.

Cold, wet poo water in the shoes isn't fun!

springvalley · #5 09/17/12, 07:55 AM

Flush systems don`t work real good up this way, to cold in the winter. Was a research farm here one time put in a flush in the cattle barn, come winter time the cattle were all sick and they soon started using bedding again, and the water came to a halt. > Thanks Marc

Vickie44 · #6 09/17/12, 03:14 PM

Would love some pictures !

rancher1913 · #7 09/17/12, 09:42 PM

the plate exchanger uses a closed system so the warm water could not go to a drinker, the risk of contamination would be to high to keep adding water to the system, also the water used as the cooling agent would be treated for ph level and freezing. they may have a secondary heat exchanger to heat the drinking water and get rid of some btu's before its cooled again which would be a big energy saver. wait until you get to use the robotic milkers and they even have a robotic feed pusher nowadays. the carousel milkers seem to be going away--to much maintenance, but the robots seem to be saving a lot of medium size dairy's

**gone-a-milkin** · #8 09/17/12, 10:07 PM

This plate cooler is certainly not a closed system. Not yet.
The whole thing is still needing work before the weather gets cold.
All the water for it comes from a well and cannot backup from the drinking trough.
However, the Surge guys did tell me that it would be VERY bad for the system to backwash (due to freezing mainly).

Working under renovation conditions since about last February here.
Including cutting new doorways in the barn. Cows are not thrilled by new doorways. They aren't big on different colored feeders either.
OMG, blue!!! We had black before. <panic/balk/sull up> . LOL

I never have worked on a carousel but I always thought it would be fun to try it.
Generally I can outmilk pretty much anyone once I know the system.
It is fun to race a bit.

Only met one man who could beat me, but he wasn't too interested in sanitation (ahem).
Having your eyes moving ahead of your hands and cutting out the extra wasted motions shaves some time off.

The thing I am the best at though is finding mastitis.
It is my one special gift. I can spot it when cows walk by me. I can smell it even.
Years of practice I guess.

I love the challenge of getting a whole herd of cows milked out properly and having a clean filter at the end.

Simple minds/ simple pleasures.

DaleK · #9 09/18/12, 05:33 AM

Yeah I've never heard of a plate cooler using a closed system, it would defeat the purpose of using cold water from the well to cool the milk. Typically they build a cistern of some kind so there's room for the water coming out of the cooler, then use that water for the cows.