Keeping The Dairy Clean

They say that cleanliness is close to godliness but on the farm, cleanliness is the key to keeping a herd healthy and a farm in profit.

Farmers know the dangers of potential diseases spreading like wildfire through their herd. A cow out of action due to ill-health comes with a hefty price tag in the form of lost production, but when that infection spreads through the herd, or even into the produced milk, the costs can have a disastrous effect on a farm. Dairymaster understand the importance of keeping the dairy clean and design and manufacture all their equipment and technology to maximise clean environments that minimise the chances of infection. Easy-to-use technology and clever innovations, unique to Dairymaster, mean that Dairymaster have consistently led the way when it comes to ways to keep a herd clean, healthy and making maximum profit for the farmer.

Stainless Steel Makes Sense

Geoff and Rob Whittall went for a complete replacement of their existing dairy. It was make or break time for the Whittall’s as they placed their trust in Dairymaster as the supplier to take the farm into the future. One of the deciding factors was Dairymaster’s use of stainless steel throughout the build, as it is simple to clean, with nowhere for bacteria to hide. The integrated final build, manufactured on site in the Dairymaster factory, allows the team to clean the dairy quickly and efficiently after each milking.

“They make everything themselves and I was very impressed, very impressed,” says Geoff, happy knowing that their new dairy has everything they wanted.

Stopping Cow-to-Cow Infection

Keeping teats clean and the cluster free of infection is vital to a clean dairy environment. Inter-cow infection happens quickly and every farmer knows the trouble caused by the spread of disease. Two Dairymaster innovations help fight the spread of infection in the parlour. The Dairymaster auto-teat spray which can spray the udder before and/or after milking. After the cow is finished the Dairymaster ClusterCleanse system flushes the cluster clear of residue using air and water. In less than ten seconds there is a fresh cluster ready for the next cow. Geoff and Rob quickly saw the benefits in their new Dairymaster parlour and really appreciate the consequent reduction of cross infection:

“We’ve got ClusterCleanse and our cell counts and Bactoscan have dramatically reduced,” says Rob, knowing how important the healthy milk readings are to their bottom line and the reputation of their herd.

Time Saving Cleaning Devices

Another time saving, cleaning device produced by the Dairymaster production team is the Scraper Backing Gate. This stainless-steel device ushers the cattle into place in the dairy and as it retreats it scrapes away all manure dropped. The unique system not only keeps the yard clean it dramatically cuts down on cleaning time, meaning farmers spend less time shovelling manure and more time growing the business. The Whittall farm uses the scraper system and immediately realised they had made a sound investment,

“The backing gate with scraper on saves us so much time,” says Rob Whittall.

Milking in a Clean Dairy both Saves and Makes Money

By installing stainless steel throughout and by fighting the sources of inter-cow infection, a farmer can now milk in a very clean environment. A clean dairy means less infection, lower vet bills and more high-quality milk going to market. Cleanliness may be close to godliness but when it comes to the farm, cleanliness is close to more profit at the end of the year.