Mechanised Feeding In Dairy

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31107, 9 July 1966, Page 9

Mechanised Feeding In Dairy

A mechanised feeding system built in a Belfast dairy five months ago has proved very worth while in the view of the owner, Mr A. C. Richards. Mr Richards, who milks a herd of 90 Friesians, installed the system himself with three points in mind—saving labour, eliminating wastes, and ensuring that every cow received its allocated quota of feed. In all three, he believes he has been fully successful.

With each cow receiving 31b of dairy ration, or a little more a day, the system is costing about £l2O a month. Mr Richards first Installed a hopper outside the dairy. It has a capacity of 3 tons, and as many other farmers have found, it is a first-class method of storage, both against weather and vermin. From the hopper, a small auger takes the meal into the dairy at roof level from where it is fed into a chain-driven system, which takes it to all feeding points in the shed. Because of health regulations, and also to deter birds, the chain-feed equipment is completely boxed. The sys-

tem feeds 12 hoppers—six on each side of the shed—and each hopper supplies two feed-bins, or trays. The hoppers above the bins are fed in succession rather than at the same time, and there is no problem with over-filling as two automatic cut-outs have been fitted at either end of the chain-feed. These cut-outs consist of two metal hoppers—built above the level of the others —which work on a pressure-filling system. The chain-feed system does not operate until the hoppers above the feedbins begin to empty. Manual work is required only to drop the meal from the hoppers at the head of the bail into the feed-bins. By turning a handle at the end of a long shaft, a cylinder in each of the hoppers is turned to release half a pound of meal. Three turns of the shaft give the cows their ration of 111 b at each milking. Mr Richards is well pleased with the investment. It cost a little over £4oo—not a great deal when balanced against the cost of other types of farm machinery.

Before Mr Richards installed the mechanical feeding system, the feed-bins were kept replenished by

hand, but Mr Richards said that at milking time other tasks quite often resulted in them running empty. He has also found that feeding in the bails has a decided advantage over feeding this type of supplementary ration out of doors. In the open some cows would keep others away and get more than their share, while others would get none, he said.

Mr Richards said he much preferred this system of bought-in supplements, fed mechanically, to growing grain himself. If he grew barley, he said he would still have to harvest, store and crush it, and the cost could be as much as 10s a bushel.

“With this system we get a balanced ration, no waste, and each cow is getting her allocated quota,’* he said.

Mr Richards described his system as a poor man’s unit in the sense that it was a system any town milk supplier could use to advantage without a big expenditure. The equipment for the system came from widely different parts of the country. The bail feeders (hopper and trays) were obtained from Dargaville, and the main parts of the chain-feed system came from Oamaru.