A top class milking marathon

4,000 cows. Milked in less than nine hours. Non-stop milking. That is the ambitious target of GEA Farm Technologies Ibérica and the Spanish company, Valle de Odieta.

“We have travelled around and looked at many kinds of milking system. Without doubt the AutoRotor Magnum 90 with 80 milking stalls from GEA Farm Technologies is the system for the modern farm of today.” Valle de Odiete is convinced that the system will pay dividends. Its advantages are manifold: Top per hour milk yields thanks to the perfect coordination of all the elements in the milking parlour and continuous animal traffic while at the same time having reduced working costs. It is for these reasons that the company places its faith in the new milking carousel on its dairy farm in Caparroso, Navarre, in northern Spain.

The aim of the project is to increase the milk production on the farm. Currently 1,800 cows are milked on the farm. This is intended to change, with the help of the AutoRotor Magnum 90. Then 4,000 cows will be able to be milked in less than nine hours. The AutoRotor Magnum 90 is in line with the highest standards and is a guarantee for consistent milk quality. “Thanks to the new rotary milking parlour  our company will be able to grow“, the staff of Valle de Odieta agree.

GEA Farm Technologies has additionally installed a high-performance cooling system which cools 8,700 litres of milk per hour down to a temperature of 2.5°C. As a result of this direct cooling process it is possible to route the milk directly into the tanker, thus avoiding the local storage in milk cooling tanks. The warmth given off by the cooling process is used to heat up water and can also be used to heat the building.

In the cows’ waiting yard GEA Farm Technologies has incorporated a pumping and scraper system from the Houle product line. Through the use of this system the area can be automatically cleaned. The cleaning water employed here is thus re-used after the milking system cleaning process. Thus the complete plant saves on additional water and the associated costs.