Chilliwack, British Columbia | Make sure you go see some systems in use before you decide on one. There are lots of ideas out there. When we built 2yrs ago, went with all new facilities, the old barns are now used for youngstock, with the old milking parlour at a dump somwhere else, it was rotting.
As far as highline goes, there is company, Dairymaster, out of Ireland, that is re-introducing the highline milking system. When the local WestfaliaSurge dealer also starting selling that, they put a lot of retrofits in. There were also two brand new facilities built with Dairymaster, both swing parlours. I only know one of them, and he still seems happy with it. I would definatley check into both a lowline and highline, with swing and a stall for each claw, and decide for yourself which would be the most efficient for the money. Maybe a larger swing parlour, or a smaller conventional?
As far as stalling goes, I wish we would have looked at parabone a little more. Best of both worlds. Milking between the back legs (saftey, don't have to fight that side leg) and no sharp corner for the cows to take. Also, less cost because you don't have the flipper gates of a parallel, and the shorter distance of a parallel.
Check out Dairymaster's website, and also maybe Dairytech in Washington. They built our stalls, and are wonderfull.
Anyother questions, you can post here or my email is in my profile and ill try to get a good answer back to you.
Good luck, building can be very stressful, but very rewarding when completed and you are happy with what you are stuck with for a while.
Glenn |
milking parlor questions
