Replacing outdated, noisy in-parlour feeders with the latest Dutch dairy technology has saved County Down milk producer Andrew Murray time and money. He reckons installing PipeFeeder In Parlour Feeders from Hanskamp AgroTech have almost halved milking times, brought compound feed bills under controlled and made working in the parlour much more pleasant.
Mr Murray, who runs the 85-strong Murray Vale herd of pedigree Holsteins with his father, David, said the decision to isntall the new pipe feeders was taken because the old in-parlour feeders urgently needed replaced as they wasted costly feed and time.
“The cows were eating all their feed quickly and then making a deafening noise thumping the feeders trying to get more,” he said. “Above all, their milk release was delayed so cow traffic through the parlour was moving ever slower.
“After some discussion with Andrew Dunn, of our dairy equipment supplier Francis Dunn Ltd, at Donaghadee, we placed an order for the PipeFeeders last year.
“Simple to install and use the PipeFeeders were lengthened to suit our dairy unit, which has excellent head room. Thus the’are almost 8ft long and so only needed refilled once a day.”
Mr Murray said his experience since switching to Hanskamp AgroTech PipeFeeders had been entirely positive.
“The design is very practical and build quality is to the usual high standards of Dutch manufacturers,” he added. “The big difference anyone coming into our parlour at milking time notices is that the cows are quiet and content. This is hardly surprising as the computer-controlled PipeFeeder in front of each cow offers the allotted amount of feed in small amounts throughout her milking time. Thus cows come forward into the parlour without fuss, stay calm and release milk quickly.”
In-parlour feeding has traditionally been popular as it makes cows keen to come in for milking, but the downside included over use of costly concentrates, cows finishing eating too soon and becoming unsettled. To solve these problems, Hanskamp AgroTech developed the PipeFeeder, an innovative concentrate-dosing system offering cows small portions of feed throughout milking.
The PipeFeeder is made of robust stainless steel with concentrates contained in the steel pipe. The ingenious dosing system built into the bottom minimises the noise of pellets falling on metal. The motor housing is available in black, red, blue or green.
For more information visit: www.hanskampagrotech.nl.
