Dairy makes big strides

And absolutely mind-blowingly amazing.

The scale is off the charts, especially when you consider their dairy development alone now covers 4300 square metres.

Installation of the rotary is the last piece of the dairy infrastructure puzzle which includes 2.5 barns built five years ago. The same designer, JGMIII from the United States, was used across the whole development.

“This is our final stage for the time being,” Jade told visitors who flocked to a recent open day.

“Our old rotary is 30 years old and has milked many cows and is way past its use by date.”

The decision to build the dairy was many years in the making and included travel to the US to look at many different barn and parlour set-ups. Earthworks began 18 months ago and steel and concrete started going in 12 months ago.

Wherever possible, Jade sourced local trades and he worked with some great people over the build, including Central Sheds.

He said the red tape was relentless, especially when it came to fire regulations in the dairy.

“Our local council were great. They are very supportive of ag, so there were no problems there,” Jade said.

Managing the build was its own beast, but Jade said he was helped by a great team headed up by Tony Milne.

There was a lot of time spent working on what Jade calls the equipment room, which is home to the vacuum for the plant, compressors, hot water services and a dedicated climate-controlled and dust-free electrical room.

Chilling milk was also a priority and has included the installation of three chillers with 600kw chilling power installed by a company which specialises in brewery set-ups.

“I have spent a lot of time over the years dealing with the fallout from warm milk, so hopefully we have a reliable system,” Jade said.

Jade said when it came to installing the actual dairy there was only two choices: GEA or De Laval. The decision was made to go with GEA based ultimately on technology and service.

“I did look at robots but I couldn’t find anything capable of milking 3000 cows and in the end we went with a big, fast and simple set-up with proven technology including milk meters and cup removers,” Jade said.

There is a dedicated chemical room for teat spray, a laundry room and office area and a kitchen for staff.

“The dairy itself is designed to be big and simple with a lot of ventilation which will hopefully be cool in summer,” Jade said.

There are three entry points for the cows, which include a training race, and the Yarroweyah platform is built on a train track system.

Jade said he stopped freeze branding cattle years ago and now used single cow NLIS ear tag ID and collars.

“We also stopped feeding in the bale 12 months ago, which was a psychological barrier I had to work through.”

The undercover yard is built to hold 750 cows.

It has lots of fans for temperature control, grooved concrete and a solid backing gate.

“The gate is essential because we do find the cows’ motivation to get into the dairy is not as high when there is no grain,” Jade said.

“We have two All Flex draft gates and cows can be drafted into one of three lanes depending on what treatment they need after milking.”

There is a 1600kW horsepower generator capable of backing up the power for the dairy and some of the barn.

“We have had so many never-ending decisions to make when it has come to power and it is probably one of things I would urge people to think about from the very beginning,” Jade said.

Jade laughs as he describes the $300,000 electrical switchboard as his own personal Lamborghini.

Clean potable water was also front of mind to prevent the hassle of any bacto problems.

Calmo Farms now employs 40 staff and building the dairy was very much about improving amenities and reducing the previous long milking times.

Jade intends to slowly transition the cows across, starting with the hospital herd to iron out any early problems.

He is expecting to have four staff at cups on (one prep spraying, one wiping/stripping teats and two putting cups on), one at cups off spraying and one droving cattle.

“We will start off milking two times a day and when things settle down we do have plans of moving that out to three times a day,” he said.

Jade is expecting milking time to be around three hours.

GEA believes the dairy is capable of comfortably milking a herd of 2000 to 6000 cows.

Interestingly, Jade said this year’s production was 150 times what his mum Jan and dad Trevor were producing when they first started milking 120 cows 53 years ago.

“That just shows the growth we have experienced over the years, but at some point it will stop,” he said.

Jan said she could not believe where Jade and Belinda had taken the farm.

“It really is amazing what they have done and I am so proud of them both,” she said.

Son Fynn, who works on the cropping side of the business, is unfazed by the development.

“I’ll stick around and see it through. We have had the barns for five years, so I am used to the size now,” Fynn said.