You can be mighty proud knowing you your dad and your grand dad all have worked the same land and stayed in the milk biz !!! It is a very honorable trade!!! Glad to see you guys have not sold out like most family’s do here in the states.. I hope your place stays in your family for many generations to come
Nice job, Andrew. I used to live in New Zealand for seven years. These videos remind me my old days back in Taranaki as a dairy herd manager. Keep posting good videos!
Love your channel! We are located in Wisconsin USA. My husband & I have visited New Zealand and love it there! I grew up on a dairy farm and enjoy seeing how you do it in your country. Keep up the good work. I agree option 2 makes the most sense for now. Thanks for sharing!
Really enjoy watching your videos and have learned a lot about dairy farming. Love the accent, although I have to work at it to figure some words out. I could never figure out what you called the milk tank in the milking shed and finally decided you were saying “vet”. New one to me until it came to me that you were saying “vat” as in “vaaaat”. The other, word is the structure you keep the corn silage in. A “put”. Okay, cute, you put the silage in the “put”. Until I heard you call the hole in the middle of the milking shed a “put”. Ohhhh, a “pit”!!! Think I’ve got them all now. 😮🙂
Haha yes you definitely have them right now! In my opinion I think the kiwi language is a very plain English and far easier to understand than the British or Australian.
Brilliant break down of your ideas and plans. Option 2 is definitely the best cost wise, Option 3 everyone would love but extremely expensive. Can I suggest if you go 4 at the front you can also go 4 at the back. Looking at the space you have I reckon you should be good to get 4 more without having to move too much. Thus you gain 8 more both sides so both your plans come together, and you manage to gain extra time with not so much extra cash. Those cracks can be filled with bitumen resin fella. 👍
C demo had a good idea, 4 on the front and 4 on the back in another few years time. Look for a good dealer who can set you up with good second hand stuff.
Thanks for the reasoning behind your decision .Your choice is a good fix for the moment and relatively inexpensive for the benefits.for the future though option 3 might happen I get the impression you might have things like nitrogen limits and carbon audits which may work against your 1X day system ,to keep the business moving forward that extra land and a central shed would make sense .Then again it’s always easier farming someone else’s place !
We milked approximately 250 cows twice a day, 8 cows at a time, twice a day. Every day . Beautiful milk would flow into our vat 365 days a year, rain hail or shine. And only take a few hours. It was a lot of manual work. 8 bails, fed with grain and molasses while being milked.
Have you thought of adding 4 units at the back and another 4 at the front. Would mean you mightn’t have to do any changes to the collecting yard. Great channel, greetings from Ireland 🇮🇪
Guarantee their vacuum pump and milk pipes are not big enough for 8 extra cups more expense. Been in the same situation and the costs don't stop and its still an old shed
Hi my name is Sean McBrien I’m from a little town in Ireland called co Longford . You said in one of your videos that silage or maize . Was going mouldy we did have the same problem at home so a long the walls put a shore pip. I really like the videos
nice vid,i extended 6 years ago from a 20 to a 36 with acr..it cut off one hour milking time.its saved me three weeks total in milking time over a year...just do it.
Agreed on the $1 Million is a lot to invest, but I'd have to see a full balance sheet (ROI), since a modern dairy parlor with the latest tech helps to minimize labor and your biggest expense in any operation is your PEOPLE, I would like to see how long the ROI would take. Secondly, by futureproofing yourself for many years to come, you also reduce additional expenses or unforseen costs to extend a roof here, add cups there, etc. Just my two cents worth! Cheers from the US.
Unfortunately even building new it wouldn’t minimise labour at all as we still need 2 full time labour units for our system, and our ROI would be pretty low. Would love to go down that route, hopefully in the future 🤞👍
At the dairy farm where i work We been in our new dairy for 2 years now the old dairy was a 25 a side 14 runs 350 cows milked just under 3 hours With 2 people the new dairy is a rotar a delaval E100 60Stall milk 60 in 13 minutes in the morning and 11 minutes in the afternoon 370 cows milked under 2 hours with one person Moving from the old to a new dairy milk yield went up 0.8 of a litter per cow per milking
I know they are not cheap our new dairy Built from scratch in a new location cost us 1.8 million a delaval E100 rotary and L30m W25m H3.5m Precast concrete panels with concrete side yard with Stainless steel fencing and crush With Automatic draft gate minyard 45x15m with rubber flooring and backing gate and 30,000 liter milk silo/vat 5 grain silos 100,000x2 liter water tank's
I’d go with adding 8 cups on out the back and put in cup removers , I’d extend the collecting yard to give you the option of running all the cows in the one herd and make it easier to manage when your old man is an a day off , I wouldn’t go out the front atall because you stil need the room there for drafting out cows , I’d leave the tractor off and do up the cow shed instead , you youse it 7 days a week and the tractor might sometimes be only started 2-3 times a week , that’s what I would do , best of luck with your decision 👍
I can’t put all the cows in one herd because then I’d have to redo all the water pipes on farm so I could keep water up to them. 😂 one problem to the next 😩 But it would be nice and like that idea 👍
Mate, personally I want you to go with option 3. 80 bale rotary lol...milking done and dusted in 30 mins tops lol haha. In saying that I'm not the one who has to pucker up and bat my eyelids to the bank manager or clench my asscheeks everytime the reserve bank governor raises the OCR lol. My cousin always says centralisation is the key. He managed a twice a day block in Orini and some days his herd were walking 11kms. A good day for him was a lame paddock that only had half a dozen in it a bad day was one with 30 cows in it. Good vid mate. Oh yeah im talking about another cousin and not the cousin who wanted to put the cups on the nuts of the shorthorn bull lol haha
@@TheOnceADayFarmer oh yeah cmon lotto lol. What about an underpass? What would one of those cost. I know afew cockys who had their sheds at the front of their farms just bought the neighbours place and put in an underpass. Id say they would be big money too im guessing
As a relief milker I personally could not milk in your current sytem.4:30/5 hours in milking pit is far too much. This is something I think you should consider. What I mean by that is finding someone to do milking's for you could be considerably more difficult as not many people would like to be in a milking pit that long. I know its only once a day so its not awful but its still far too long IMO. That's why I believe option 3 would be your best option as the other two options do not give that much of a time reduction. Yes the cost is considerably higher and maybe the dairy farmer in me wants it too lol. Having a more modern setup for a 2:30/3hr milking time would make your farm more attractive to milk at. Relief milkers are something you should think about in the construction purely because everyone will need one at some point in time for holidays or bereavements. But like you said yourself your also future proofing yourself so it gives you more flexibility in the future. But regardless of what you do Andrew I wish you the best of luck in what you choose
Yep I totally understand what your saying and I quite agree, that’s part of the reason I want a bigger shed, we didn’t use any relief Milker’s last year as we just cover each other we will in the future and want to make it easy and quick for them as well as ourselves A new shed would be awesome, but just can’t justify spending that sort of money…if I win lotto tonight there will be some pretty interesting videos coming up tho 🤞😂
@@TheOnceADayFarmer Ah yes i see. Having a system like that works well too where one fills in for the other. I think everyone would be the same if they won the lotto. My first youtube video would be the parlour layout haha. best of luck regardless
Option 3 Andrew is the way to go but with rotary . Solar panels all over the roof with battery back up. Big expense but will be setting your kids up when they take over. Just have to win the lotto. 😇. On a serious note think about extending the yard infrastructure so you can combine the herd for ease of handling which would cut down your time in the morning MAYBE 🤔
I’ve brought my ticket 🤞😂 Yeah I get what you mean, if we had one herd we would have to re do all the water pipes on farm next to keep water up to them, one problem after the other 😅
Hi, you will still be required to put the pad in for the tanker and fix the cracks in the yard and concrete surface in the Nik room. We put rubber matting down on our yard and milk room floor to cover it up and was beneficial to the cows and us standing on it stopped getting sore ankles. My advice would be get your fonterra area rep in and then maybe 2-3 different contractors. Option 2 is also best because less outlay before you go to option 3 which would probably be when you take over share milking 🤔
Rubber matting is probably not a bad option and something to look into, yeah trying to spend as less as possible so hopefully one day we could build a new shed 👍👌
Option 3 is $1m NZ or about $700,000 US. One major question is income generation from current or potential increased milk production - more cows or 2x per day milking. That central location would simplify milking time and cow travel time - leveraging your paddocks more. How much income would you expect annually with the increased production? How long would it take to pay off the new shed?
Don’t think we would get much more production wise but centralising it, and I worked out the other day we are 7 milk solids per cow off last year what we used to do twice a day. Would be so nice to build a brand new shed tho!
Think about Liam hennessy’s suggestion. If you have to repair that circular concrete part of the yard this is the time to do it. Putting 4 in at the back you probably wouldn’t have to extend it just resurface it. It shouldn’t interfere with your slurry drain either.
Awesome video as always Andrew. Definitely option 2, it’s the way to go my friend. Off course the other option is to do nothing, after all you spend 30-40k to gain 45 minutes. You know what they say, a fool and his money are soon parted. A penny for your thoughts Andrew. Thanks for sharing mate.
One more question mate do you ever have wind ? While milking? Seeing that this was made about a year ago what option did you end up doing? Not being a leg rider but I think your dads idea was the best
Hi Andrew. I think that you have another cheaper option. If you could get another used milking machine at a reasonable price it would work out a lot cheaper for you. I have done this a few years ago. A lot of parts are stainless steel and pumps can be doubled up at a fraction of the cost of buying new. I done all the steel work and railings myself and we mixed the concrete with a loader. But as another said you could add on four in the front and maybe if you want add another four in the back at a later time. Best of luck with whatever decision you make.
We have definitely considered that with what I wanted to do, there’s not a lot of 2nd hand plant out there at the moment. But like you said, would be so much cheaper tho. 👍
whenever I budget for a renovation I have a add on for extra stuff you don't realise has to be included or replaced - add 35% to the budget = add 14K for overrun
I reckon it wouldn't take much to found a cow shed that you could pull all the plant and gear out of these days, theres a 26 aside 1 minute down the road from me they shut down last June and turned it into a Runoff for the Neighboring farm.
I think there is a 4th option. Run a fresh power out past your conrete to the poop sump, so you dont have to worry about it. Move the ice bank. Go forward as far as you can for the milking equipment you have and rework the concrete and fencing/chute to suit. If you have to get a machine in, putting in a trench for the new power is very little extra work to get the extra spots in. So option 1 in option 2. 15mins a day is about 4 days in a year. If the back half of the shed/yard is no good, the vat room and apron need to be done and youre outgrowing the milking machine, yeah you would be better off building a whole new shed. If you do, please for the sake of all the tanker drivers out there, do not use the truck access as a lane or even have a lane cross the driveway. Thats some slippery shit. An issue with moving the shed to the center is where your fodder is kept and how you will feed it.
All food for thought, I’ll get the professionals out one day and put these questions to them and see what they reckon 👍 Would be easier feed wise if we built new as it would be closer to the feed pad and silage bunkers, hopefully I win lotto tonight 🤞😂
This is funny as ur dad has started the job already and disguised it as a roof for the ice bank “there is no point getting older if u don’t get wiser “
Appears eight out front is the least cost option.may want to put 2-3 act’s in the front or back wherever your routine dictates,see how they work for you,then add more if needed and budget allows.no to the million dollar project,yes, it would be nice but then you will have to milk cows well after your dads age.😉
To be honest we looked at it (company installed and pay a flat rate for power) but it was cheaper the way we do it now and use 2/3 of our power off peak. And to buy solar it’s expensive so not worth it at the moment. Would love to one day though
I miss the sound of the Reed pulsation I went to NZ in college placement and had to cut my stay short due to covid, dairying Is a lot different up here in Ireland
I reckon throw abit of money making your yard bigger with an electric backing gate so you can spend more time in the pit. Having more room might fit all the cows in one herd could save abit of time. But what ever you do hope it goes smoothly and those bloody inspectors arnt to harsh on ya.
Am I rigth in saying there is a second shed on ur farm 20 unit parlour. Why not get that going and split the herd in the morning 180 and 140 you could even put one herd on tad milking. Use the oad herd for hiefers and late calvers. Keep the oad herd on 100% grass and supplement the high producing tad herd.
Yep you are! It would just cost way to much to get the bigger shed up and running again. It’s a good idea but I’d rather put the money into extending the one we currently milk through 👍
Double up dairies are fairly common over here in aus. Was lucky enough to pick up some well priced second hand waikato acr’s for our 12 double up dairy. Milking 280 in 2 1/2- 3 hours with one person. I’d imagine you’d need to upgrade vac pump though.
Andrew, what could you do differently to reduce your cows having to walk to your furthest paddocks? Is zero grazing an option. Option 3 would be really expensive but the other options need more pondering (your price could be well over).
Yeah mate just save ya time and money for a new shed both other options are still significant cost for bugger all benefit. We also have a shed what's been extended out both ends and a new yard added on and while everything does work its not enjoyable to use and the older parts really showing their age now
We went from an 8 double up to a 21 swing over with acr one man shed cost us 70k 15 yrs ago I can milk 300 jerseys in 2 hours an we were still milking In the shed when we extended it 😬 I don’t recommend that lol
Did you not look at option of milking in old milking parlour that you bought. Was it not a 20 herring bone...you could milk there and your dad milk where you are now.. Probably cost to much to get it going again.. Would save 2 hours in the morning...
@@TheOnceADayFarmer I put in cluster removers 5 years ago.it saves me half hour each milking and a lot of walking. Cost 1k a unit. Saves a lot of walking and overmilking cows... Maybe something to look at and units on front.
Great Video Andrew....very engaging and uptiojn two,,,your dad's idea is best....for the foreseeable. If you get more land then maybe revisit option 3!!!! But Option 2 makes a lot of sense to me 👍
Pit wouldn’t be wide enough I don’t think, I don’t really know enough about double ups as I’ve never milked in them but they are as rare as hens teeth here in NZ
Andrew walk with me. option 3 you are a young man going to milk cow for 25 more years.your father is not going to milk forever. You need to plan towards option 3 start doing the road ways .is the farm next door going to come soon ? Do option 2 to help in the short term 2-4 years. Maybe milk twice a day for a year or two to pay for it
Yes and some 3x, but OAD works for us, you do loose a little bit of production between 0-5% for jerseys so we are happy with that and not having to milk in the afternoon 👍
How about adding another row of cups on the other side. Basically change from swing-over to double and you could use all the stuff from the other parlour. Boss did the same before he build the rotary 2 years ago. Love your channel.
@@carlwereld5131 just don’t think it work to our system, plus we would need 4-5 robots and all the infrastructure to house them so would be pretty expensive 🤷
option 4 put a central robotic shed in to milk one herd & the other herd to remain in your old shed. In future the robotic shed could be extended to milk both herds. A lot of likes & comments following this vid - it's great to see & read!
I think you still need to look seriously at the new shed option. I know once a day is your thing but twice a day and less walking does equal more milk - do some maths on it
Would be so nice, I’m buying lotto tickets 🤞😂 Yep less walking does mean more milk in the vat, but I worked out the other day, last year I was only 7kgMS/cow off what dad used to do TAD. We like being OAD and don’t really want to go back to TAD 👍
You can be mighty proud knowing you your dad and your grand dad all have worked the same land and stayed in the milk biz !!! It is a very honorable trade!!! Glad to see you guys have not sold out like most family’s do here in the states.. I hope your place stays in your family for many generations to come
Add ACRS. They make milking sooooo much easier! If you’re in the parlour for that long every morning at least make it a nice place to spend time!
Would love to and totally agree with you on that one for sure 👍
fixing the cracks is easy while doing that seal the concrete so it last for long time
Nice job, Andrew. I used to live in New Zealand for seven years. These videos remind me my old days back in Taranaki as a dairy herd manager. Keep posting good videos!
Thanks mate, beautiful country down there 👌
good call on your shed
Cheers, putting it all on hold now so we can do a 24 one day 👍
It's your life, new dairy.
Love your channel! We are located in Wisconsin USA. My husband & I have visited New Zealand and love it there! I grew up on a dairy farm and enjoy seeing how you do it in your country. Keep up the good work. I agree option 2 makes the most sense for now. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for watching 👍 and glad you enjoyed your visit down here 👌
Really enjoy watching your videos and have learned a lot about dairy farming. Love the accent, although I have to work at it to figure some words out. I could never figure out what you called the milk tank in the milking shed and finally decided you were saying “vet”. New one to me until it came to me that you were saying “vat” as in “vaaaat”. The other, word is the structure you keep the corn silage in. A “put”. Okay, cute, you put the silage in the “put”. Until I heard you call the hole in the middle of the milking shed a “put”. Ohhhh, a “pit”!!! Think I’ve got them all now. 😮🙂
Haha yes you definitely have them right now! In my opinion I think the kiwi language is a very plain English and far easier to understand than the British or Australian.
Brilliant break down of your ideas and plans.
Option 2 is definitely the best cost wise,
Option 3 everyone would love but extremely expensive.
Can I suggest if you go 4 at the front you can also go 4 at the back.
Looking at the space you have I reckon you should be good to get 4 more without having to move too much.
Thus you gain 8 more both sides so both your plans come together, and you manage to gain extra time with not so much extra cash.
Those cracks can be filled with bitumen resin fella. 👍
C demo had a good idea, 4 on the front and 4 on the back in another few years time. Look for a good dealer who can set you up with good second hand stuff.
Yeah that’s not a bad idea, definitely taken it into consideration and will ask someone when they come and have a look 👌👍
Thanks for the reasoning behind your decision .Your choice is a good fix for the moment and relatively inexpensive for the benefits.for the future though option 3 might happen I get the impression you might have things like nitrogen limits and carbon audits which may work against your 1X day system ,to keep the business moving forward that extra land and a central shed would make sense .Then again it’s always easier farming someone else’s place !
Yeah definitely, a new shed will be on the cards one day but for now a cheap fix will do 👍
😂 isn’t that true!
We milked approximately 250 cows twice a day, 8 cows at a time, twice a day. Every day . Beautiful milk would flow into our vat 365 days a year, rain hail or shine. And only take a few hours. It was a lot of manual work. 8 bails, fed with grain and molasses while being milked.
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Have you thought of adding 4 units at the back and another 4 at the front. Would mean you mightn’t have to do any changes to the collecting yard. Great channel, greetings from Ireland 🇮🇪
Guarantee their vacuum pump and milk pipes are not big enough for 8 extra cups more expense. Been in the same situation and the costs don't stop and its still an old shed
Yeah I’d tend to agree with Paul, but will ask someone when they come to have a look one day, thanks Liam 👍
Thanks for your reply. Gee you got a lot of comments on the options. Certainly created a lot of interest amongst your subscribers 👍🤔
Hasn’t it just! But cool to get other ideas flowing, I’ve definitely taken some of them on board 👍
Hi my name is Sean McBrien I’m from a little town in Ireland called co Longford . You said in one of your videos that silage or maize . Was going mouldy we did have the same problem at home so a long the walls put a shore pip. I really like the videos
My wife is Michelle from Perth wa
Ahh yeah that’s something to consider, did you put it along the top walls?
nice vid,i extended 6 years ago from a 20 to a 36 with acr..it cut off one hour milking time.its saved me three weeks total in milking time over a year...just do it.
That’s awesome!! 👌
Great video
Thanks 👍
Agreed on the $1 Million is a lot to invest, but I'd have to see a full balance sheet (ROI), since a modern dairy parlor with the latest tech helps to minimize labor and your biggest expense in any operation is your PEOPLE, I would like to see how long the ROI would take. Secondly, by futureproofing yourself for many years to come, you also reduce additional expenses or unforseen costs to extend a roof here, add cups there, etc. Just my two cents worth! Cheers from the US.
Unfortunately even building new it wouldn’t minimise labour at all as we still need 2 full time labour units for our system, and our ROI would be pretty low. Would love to go down that route, hopefully in the future 🤞👍
At the dairy farm where i work We been in our new dairy for 2 years now the old dairy was a 25 a side 14 runs 350 cows milked just under 3 hours With 2 people the new dairy is a rotar a delaval E100 60Stall milk 60 in 13 minutes in the morning and 11 minutes in the afternoon 370 cows milked under 2 hours with one person Moving from the old to a new dairy milk yield went up 0.8 of a litter per cow per milking
Interesting 👍 would be so nice to go new but just can’t warrant it at the moment
I know they are not cheap our new dairy Built from scratch in a new location cost us 1.8 million a delaval E100 rotary and L30m W25m H3.5m Precast concrete panels with concrete side yard with Stainless steel fencing and crush With Automatic draft gate minyard 45x15m with rubber flooring and backing gate and 30,000 liter milk silo/vat 5 grain silos 100,000x2 liter water tank's
That sounds absolutely awesome!! Definitely expensive but would be soo nice 👌
I’d go with adding 8 cups on out the back and put in cup removers , I’d extend the collecting yard to give you the option of running all the cows in the one herd and make it easier to manage when your old man is an a day off , I wouldn’t go out the front atall because you stil need the room there for drafting out cows , I’d leave the tractor off and do up the cow shed instead , you youse it 7 days a week and the tractor might sometimes be only started 2-3 times a week , that’s what I would do , best of luck with your decision 👍
I can’t put all the cows in one herd because then I’d have to redo all the water pipes on farm so I could keep water up to them. 😂 one problem to the next 😩
But it would be nice and like that idea 👍
I agree with your decision
Thank you for sharing! Hugs and love to you and your family. ❤✝🤗 Have a beautiful and blessed week. God Bless ❤✝🤗
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Mate, personally I want you to go with option 3. 80 bale rotary lol...milking done and dusted in 30 mins tops lol haha. In saying that I'm not the one who has to pucker up and bat my eyelids to the bank manager or clench my asscheeks everytime the reserve bank governor raises the OCR lol. My cousin always says centralisation is the key. He managed a twice a day block in Orini and some days his herd were walking 11kms. A good day for him was a lame paddock that only had half a dozen in it a bad day was one with 30 cows in it. Good vid mate. Oh yeah im talking about another cousin and not the cousin who wanted to put the cups on the nuts of the shorthorn bull lol haha
I’d love to go with that option too 😂
But really can’t justify spending that sort of money at the moment 🤙
Hopefully my lotto numbers come in 😂🤞
@@TheOnceADayFarmer oh yeah cmon lotto lol. What about an underpass? What would one of those cost. I know afew cockys who had their sheds at the front of their farms just bought the neighbours place and put in an underpass. Id say they would be big money too im guessing
Acrs are the go and wouldn't go back they do cost but opinion 2 is the best to do, especially with OAD milking .
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As a relief milker I personally could not milk in your current sytem.4:30/5 hours in milking pit is far too much. This is something I think you should consider. What I mean by that is finding someone to do milking's for you could be considerably more difficult as not many people would like to be in a milking pit that long. I know its only once a day so its not awful but its still far too long IMO. That's why I believe option 3 would be your best option as the other two options do not give that much of a time reduction. Yes the cost is considerably higher and maybe the dairy farmer in me wants it too lol. Having a more modern setup for a 2:30/3hr milking time would make your farm more attractive to milk at. Relief milkers are something you should think about in the construction purely because everyone will need one at some point in time for holidays or bereavements. But like you said yourself your also future proofing yourself so it gives you more flexibility in the future. But regardless of what you do Andrew I wish you the best of luck in what you choose
Yep I totally understand what your saying and I quite agree, that’s part of the reason I want a bigger shed, we didn’t use any relief Milker’s last year as we just cover each other we will in the future and want to make it easy and quick for them as well as ourselves
A new shed would be awesome, but just can’t justify spending that sort of money…if I win lotto tonight there will be some pretty interesting videos coming up tho 🤞😂
@@TheOnceADayFarmer Ah yes i see. Having a system like that works well too where one fills in for the other. I think everyone would be the same if they won the lotto. My first youtube video would be the parlour layout haha. best of luck regardless
Option 3 Andrew is the way to go but with rotary . Solar panels all over the roof with battery back up. Big expense but will be setting your kids up when they take over. Just have to win the lotto. 😇. On a serious note think about extending the yard infrastructure so you can combine the herd for ease of handling which would cut down your time in the morning MAYBE 🤔
I’ve brought my ticket 🤞😂
Yeah I get what you mean, if we had one herd we would have to re do all the water pipes on farm next to keep water up to them, one problem after the other 😅
Hi Waikato, watching from fiji
Hi, you will still be required to put the pad in for the tanker and fix the cracks in the yard and concrete surface in the Nik room. We put rubber matting down on our yard and milk room floor to cover it up and was beneficial to the cows and us standing on it stopped getting sore ankles. My advice would be get your fonterra area rep in and then maybe 2-3 different contractors. Option 2 is also best because less outlay before you go to option 3 which would probably be when you take over share milking 🤔
Rubber matting is probably not a bad option and something to look into, yeah trying to spend as less as possible so hopefully one day we could build a new shed 👍👌
Option 3 is $1m NZ or about $700,000 US. One major question is income generation from current or potential increased milk production - more cows or 2x per day milking. That central location would simplify milking time and cow travel time - leveraging your paddocks more. How much income would you expect annually with the increased production? How long would it take to pay off the new shed?
Yep milking twice a day and less distance to walk could get another 100 solids a cow easy
@@glenkoopman7347 🤣.
Don’t think we would get much more production wise but centralising it, and I worked out the other day we are 7 milk solids per cow off last year what we used to do twice a day.
Would be so nice to build a brand new shed tho!
Think about Liam hennessy’s suggestion. If you have to repair that circular concrete part of the yard this is the time to do it. Putting 4 in at the back you probably wouldn’t have to extend it just resurface it. It shouldn’t interfere with your slurry drain either.
Definitely something to think about for sure 👍
In the not an option category ( cost probably) maybe a centrally located robotic dairy , free up more time and increase the size of your herd.
I don’t know much about robots but I like milking 😂👍
Robots would increase the cost considerably. Horses for courses though🏴
Awesome video as always Andrew. Definitely option 2, it’s the way to go my friend. Off course the other option is to do nothing, after all you spend 30-40k to gain 45 minutes. You know what they say, a fool and his money are soon parted. A penny for your thoughts Andrew. Thanks for sharing mate.
I forgot to add it in but that was the 4th option, do nothing and spend the money somewhere else 👍
15mins is about 4 days a year. 45 mins is about 11 days. over 10 years thats a 3 month holiday.
bob bob thanks for doing the sum my friend.
The Once A Day Farmer maybe a world rugby tour, how’s that for a 4th option mate.
Can you show us the bladder. Double up the parlour. Using 2nd gear. Cheap as
Yep I’ll add it in at some point 👍
hey Andrew with any of the options I would suggest adding in an electric backing gate in to the yards
Yeah not a bad idea 😂👍
One more question mate do you ever have wind ? While milking?
Seeing that this was made about a year ago what option did you end up doing?
Not being a leg rider but I think your dads idea was the best
Great vid Andrew
Thanks 👍
Hi Andrew. I think that you have another cheaper option. If you could get another used milking machine at a reasonable price it would work out a lot cheaper for you. I have done this a few years ago. A lot of parts are stainless steel and pumps can be doubled up at a fraction of the cost of buying new. I done all the steel work and railings myself and we mixed the concrete with a loader. But as another said you could add on four in the front and maybe if you want add another four in the back at a later time. Best of luck with whatever decision you make.
We have definitely considered that with what I wanted to do, there’s not a lot of 2nd hand plant out there at the moment. But like you said, would be so much cheaper tho. 👍
Check maxT could save some time and want affect you production or scc
Another option over acr's is pulsation arrest, you would still have one in the shed cupping
Never heard of that before but had a look and it’s pretty interesting 👍
whenever I budget for a renovation I have a add on for extra stuff you don't realise has to be included or replaced - add 35% to the budget = add 14K for overrun
Yeah exactly, it’s way better to over estimate 👌👍
I reckon it wouldn't take much to found a cow shed that you could pull all the plant and gear out of these days, theres a 26 aside 1 minute down the road from me they shut down last June and turned it into a Runoff for the Neighboring farm.
I’ve had a look on trade me and there’s a few around 👍
I think there is a 4th option. Run a fresh power out past your conrete to the poop sump, so you dont have to worry about it. Move the ice bank. Go forward as far as you can for the milking equipment you have and rework the concrete and fencing/chute to suit. If you have to get a machine in, putting in a trench for the new power is very little extra work to get the extra spots in. So option 1 in option 2. 15mins a day is about 4 days in a year.
If the back half of the shed/yard is no good, the vat room and apron need to be done and youre outgrowing the milking machine, yeah you would be better off building a whole new shed. If you do, please for the sake of all the tanker drivers out there, do not use the truck access as a lane or even have a lane cross the driveway. Thats some slippery shit.
An issue with moving the shed to the center is where your fodder is kept and how you will feed it.
All food for thought, I’ll get the professionals out one day and put these questions to them and see what they reckon 👍
Would be easier feed wise if we built new as it would be closer to the feed pad and silage bunkers, hopefully I win lotto tonight 🤞😂
Hi Andrew , have you ever thought of a robotic dairy shed , I’ve been watching a bit on the internet , I’m very impressed , small and large dairy’s
Not really keen on them, but I don’t know too much about them either 🤷
Could you commission the other cows shed and milk in 2 spots.
Just cost to much to keep 2 running 👍
Hi needed new cowshed
you may aswell do the uprgrade because you'll find you will spend that money for upgrades that wont be as good as a new shed
This is funny as ur dad has started the job already and disguised it as a roof for the ice bank “there is no point getting older if u don’t get wiser “
😂👌
Appears eight out front is the least cost option.may want to put 2-3 act’s in the front or back wherever your routine dictates,see how they work for you,then add more if needed and budget allows.no to the million dollar project,yes, it would be nice but then you will have to milk cows well after your dads age.😉
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since your into improving definately fix the yards as well new concrete so cows don't injure their feet.
Would solar panels be of any of any use on your farm.
To be honest we looked at it (company installed and pay a flat rate for power) but it was cheaper the way we do it now and use 2/3 of our power off peak.
And to buy solar it’s expensive so not worth it at the moment. Would love to one day though
I miss the sound of the Reed pulsation I went to NZ in college placement and had to cut my stay short due to covid, dairying Is a lot different up here in Ireland
That sucks!! Bloody COVID😩
I reckon throw abit of money making your yard bigger with an electric backing gate so you can spend more time in the pit. Having more room might fit all the cows in one herd could save abit of time. But what ever you do hope it goes smoothly and those bloody inspectors arnt to harsh on ya.
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Am I rigth in saying there is a second shed on ur farm 20 unit parlour. Why not get that going and split the herd in the morning 180 and 140 you could even put one herd on tad milking. Use the oad herd for hiefers and late calvers. Keep the oad herd on 100% grass and supplement the high producing tad herd.
Yep you are! It would just cost way to much to get the bigger shed up and running again.
It’s a good idea but I’d rather put the money into extending the one we currently milk through 👍
Option 1 would be more further proof but I would just knock down the old one and built it their
Would be nice 👍 I will if I win lotto 🤞😂
Hi I like your video
Hey Anderw did u think you could put 4 at the front and four at the back to get your 8 but not change to yard
Possibly I’ll have to ask someone when they come and have a look to see what they reckon 👍
What would be cost for adding milking units for other side. And automatic take offs?
Acrs are 1000 a unit
Not to sure what it would be to double it up, but you don’t see many sheds over here like that
Double up dairies are fairly common over here in aus. Was lucky enough to pick up some well priced second hand waikato acr’s for our 12 double up dairy. Milking 280 in 2 1/2- 3 hours with one person. I’d imagine you’d need to upgrade vac pump though.
Hey could you do 4 out the front and 4 out the back?? Maybe that will not be to expensive!!
Maybe I’ll have to wait to ask the pros and see what they reckon👍
Hi like your video
Andrew, what could you do differently to reduce your cows having to walk to your furthest paddocks? Is zero grazing an option. Option 3 would be really expensive but the other options need more pondering (your price could be well over).
Hmm not really because we don’t have the infrastructure to zero graze. Yeah I need to get people out and get some quotes and more ideas 👍
Option 3
Would be nice 🤞
Does the gov. have any grants?
Nah, the only grant’s you can get is for environmental projects really
Hi new cowshed
could you not extend the 4 up front and maybe 2 out back and then you may not need to alter yard
Yeah maybe, worth asking someone that! 👍
Hi Andrew great video as usual, if you doubled up and had 16 aside milking would that work for you
Don’t think so, you don’t see many sheds over here like that. We tend to just go longer I guess
Yeah mate just save ya time and money for a new shed both other options are still significant cost for bugger all benefit. We also have a shed what's been extended out both ends and a new yard added on and while everything does work its not enjoyable to use and the older parts really showing their age now
I know what you mean but we need to do something and building news out of the question 👍
We went from an 8 double up to a 21 swing over with acr one man shed cost us 70k 15 yrs ago I can milk 300 jerseys in 2 hours an we were still milking In the shed when we extended it 😬 I don’t recommend that lol
That would’ve been mint 👌 haha nah I bet!
Time is money, new shed yo
Did you not look at option of milking in old milking parlour that you bought. Was it not a 20 herring bone...you could milk there and your dad milk where you are now.. Probably cost to much to get it going again.. Would save 2 hours in the morning...
Nah not really, purely because like you said would cost so much to meet regulations again 👍
@@TheOnceADayFarmer I put in cluster removers 5 years ago.it saves me half hour each milking and a lot of walking. Cost 1k a unit. Saves a lot of walking and overmilking cows... Maybe something to look at and units on front.
you have got more likees for this in 24 hours than you had subscribers when I started watching you are growing like spring grass at the moment
Haha yeah going through but of a growth stage, couple of videos doing better than usual 👍
Sir how cold does it get there if u dont mind me asking
Where we farm gets cold but not cold enough to snow 👍
How about cut the bum rails out put a straight one in an an shorten up the gaps between the cups
Still only fit maybe 1 or 2 more in tho 🤷
@@TheOnceADayFarmer yeah that would be about right too
Do your cows eat grain when your milking or something
Nah we don’t have in shed feeding
Hi needed 3 new cowshed
Hello
Widen the shed. And put the cows at 90 degrees.
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Could you put the four on the front and do 2 at the back.
Yeah that’s not a bad idea at all!
@@TheOnceADayFarmer the odd good idea comes out of New Plymouth 😁
Great Video Andrew....very engaging and uptiojn two,,,your dad's idea is best....for the foreseeable. If you get more land then maybe revisit option 3!!!! But Option 2 makes a lot of sense to me 👍
Yep 👍
How much does 1 hectare of land cost in your region?
About $60,000 NZD 👍
Option 3 would be huge, it’d make it so much better for you Guys
Yeah it would, I’d just need to win lotto first 🤞😂
How about putting in 16 double up with act’s just a taught. No chance to the building
Pit wouldn’t be wide enough I don’t think, I don’t really know enough about double ups as I’ve never milked in them but they are as rare as hens teeth here in NZ
i think you can put money in time.
it is 15 dollars an our so
Andrew walk with me. option 3 you are a young man going to milk cow for 25 more years.your father is not going to milk forever. You need to plan towards option 3 start doing the road ways .is the farm next door going to come soon ? Do option 2 to help in the short term 2-4 years. Maybe milk twice a day for a year or two to pay for it
It’s definitely a good idea, just such a massive financial cost, we definitely look at building new in the future however, probably when dad retires 😂
Why do you only milk once a day? Most American dairies milk twice a day?
Yes and some 3x, but OAD works for us, you do loose a little bit of production between 0-5% for jerseys so we are happy with that and not having to milk in the afternoon 👍
How about adding another row of cups on the other side. Basically change from swing-over to double and you could use all the stuff from the other parlour. Boss did the same before he build the rotary 2 years ago. Love your channel.
Thanks man 👍
Hmm not big on the double ups I hear what your saying tho 🤔
I think you'd be more like 1.5millon, And that concrete in the vat stand can be resurfaced bro easy
Yeah that’s what I was thinking 😂 I may have been a little bit to conservative for that one
Do double up 32 cups
Option 1+2???
Would be nice 😩👍
Hi 3 mile
Robotic milking might be an option
Not really big on the robots, just such a massive outlay
I miss option 4 : milking robot
Hmm yeah not really keen on the robots sorry
@@TheOnceADayFarmer Can you explain why
@@carlwereld5131 just don’t think it work to our system, plus we would need 4-5 robots and all the infrastructure to house them so would be pretty expensive 🤷
Hi opinions 3 new cowshed
option 4 put a central robotic shed in to milk one herd & the other herd to remain in your old shed. In future the robotic shed could be extended to milk both herds. A lot of likes & comments following this vid - it's great to see & read!
Hmm I’m not real big on robots, I’m not sure if our grazing style would suit them and I quite like milking 👍
Yeah it’s great input from everyone 👌
Increase pit both ends
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Win the lotto and get automated parlour 😂
💯🤞 they’d be pretty interesting videos if I won lotto 😂
I think you still need to look seriously at the new shed option. I know once a day is your thing but twice a day and less walking does equal more milk - do some maths on it
Would be so nice, I’m buying lotto tickets 🤞😂
Yep less walking does mean more milk in the vat, but I worked out the other day, last year I was only 7kgMS/cow off what dad used to do TAD.
We like being OAD and don’t really want to go back to TAD 👍
@@TheOnceADayFarmer yeah I can see your a good operator and doin nearly your dads old production shows that, imagine what your twice a day could be?
Hi 2 mile
Is there a job in the company? 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢🙌
No
2024 now - any changes ?
4 in the front and 2 in the back
And are you still looking for a new tractor
Yeah that sounds like a good idea 👍 we have our eye on one 😉
Why r u putting roof on front if your going to extend pit
Cause then the pit will be under cover if we go out the front 👍