Waikato Milking Systems: Browne Pastoral

The emerging sheep and niche goat dairy industries continue to show signs of expansion and Waikato Milking Systems is keeping pace to ensure farmers have the best tools and capability to succeed.

The company is drawing upon its experiences of the past two years installing three dairy sheep and three dairy goat milking systems all in the greater Waikato region. Among those to enter the dairy sheep industry are Allan and Toni Browne who run Browne Pastoral near Cambridge. The family-run business began supplying to Maui Sheep Milk in late 2020, after commissioning a 70-point Ultimo Internal Sheep Rotary Milking System. The prototype rotary was designed and manufactured by Waikato Milking Systems and installed by dealership, Qubik. Browne Pastoral is now into its second season with milk production outperforming initial expectations and the internal rotary performing “faultlessly”, Allan said. He reckons they’ve done a better job of training the sheep to use the rotary this season, throughput has improved and milk recovery is good. “We peaked in our first season with 1050 ewes and this year we have peaked at 1420, down to about 1320 now after moving some out. “We’re running the rotary platform with two people inside, milking 1400 sheep in about 2 hours, 15 minutes at peak numbers, now down to about 2 hours.” Allan said the optimum time is 5 minutes and 30 seconds per rotation. “That time allows us to get 400 grams of feed into the animals twice a day for good weight gain. “We could run the platform faster but I’m not willing to lose out on that good use of feed.” Having a reliable milking system has helped exceed milk production targets for Browne Pastoral, so much so that by the end of the first season the farm had to install a larger vat to accommodate the extra milk. “The vat was just too small for the amount of milk we were producing. We got up to about 50 per cent more milk solids than expected. “I think we have peaked at nearly 10,000 litres, that’s a four-day collection so about 2500 litres per day.” In the near future, Allan would like to see animal identification technology added to the rotary and it is a feature Waikato Milking Systems plans to release soon. “Once we get accurate EID readers in there we can also add some milk monitoring features.” The rotary already has ECR-S (electronic cup removers), SmartPulse, In-Bail Feed, SR Cluster Washer and Automatic Headlocks. Outside the shed, pasture and feed growth is still a work in progress, Allan said. “We have been found out a bit this season because it’s been so dry, we haven’t had those legume-based pastures. “But I can’t plant the whole farm up in chicory, it would be ideal if I could.” Allan is mindful of carefully managing the 570 hectare property because the family also run 450 dairy cows and fatten about 300 prime cattle a year. But 18 months on from installing the sheep rotary, it’s still drawing interest from visitors. “We’re still getting a steady stream of people coming through, looking to see what it’s all about and interested in entering the industry.”