ARNOLD
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Farm overseer Keith Arnold.
Grant Coburn, from GEA Farm Technologies, checking out the high-tech goat milking/ research system.
FIL Te Awamutu and Otorohanga area manager Colin Ranby looking over the teat care system his company provided.
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Happy in his work: Josh Kane from King Electrical in Matamata.
Feeding time in the goat barn. installed new clusters and cup removers, milk metering and pulsators. Peter says the company also assisted GEA Farm Technologies in the animal identification system, with the yard upgraded to suit. This included RFID reader in-bail entry, he says. Peter says Milk ‘n’ Water Services Matamata installed a sanitary trap in the Pukeatua shed, hooked up the compressed air for the bail system and plumbed in the teat-wash. The company also plumbed-up the secondary milk vat. Keith says stairs were changed to extend the pit length and better accommodate the new clusters. The milk-room basically remained the same, with the addition of a new air compressor. A new IntelliBlend teat spray system was provided by GEA FIL.
FIL area manager for Te Awamutu and Otorohanga, Colin Ranby, says the system involves automatic mixing and delivery of an iodine-based teat spray and emollient.
Teat spray The ratio is computer-controlled, with material pumped directly to the pit from three drums – 200L Iodoshield Active, 100L Active Teat Conditioner and a water reservoir. Colin says a drag hose in the pit is used to convey the spray after each goat has been milked. An audible alarm notifies farm staff when drum contents are running low, he says. Colin says the system is easily programmed to add more emollient as required through seasonal changes or when a deterioration in teat condition is detected. Matamata-based King Electrical ‘gutted’ the existing goat milking operation’s
electrical system in order to upgrade it. Electrician Josh Kane says in the bails this involved all power requirements, including control boxes, relating to the advanced milk sampling/metering technology used. “This is the main brain of the system,” says Josh. King Electrical also upgraded lighting in the milking shed and wired up the new in-bail feeding system. Their work in the yard also included electrical requirements for water reticulation and associated washdown controls. In the plant room, Josh says King Electrical was responsible for powering the new teat-spray operation, air compressor and vacuum pump. The company also changed electrical controls for the water pump and vat wash system, while recommissioning the ice bank and refrigeration system.
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Milk ‘n’ Water Services – Matamata milking machine technician Peter Taylor with the new clusters.
Goats have plenty of space in the “scaled back” operation. Josh says King Electrical wired the chiller unit and vat wash pump for the secondary milk vat, along with providing power to the farm office computer. Keith says physical work on the existing shed centred on lifting the roof to accommodate the rapid exit and in-bail feeding systems. Existing barns, with associated feeding systems, are used in the Arapuni Rd operation. The first milking in the revamped facility was undertaken on August 15, 2020. Keith says the Saanen herd is milked twice a day, with three staff engaged. Originating from the Saanen Valley in Switzerland, this breed is acclaimed as the most popular and highest producing milking goat in New Zealand. Processed at the DGC’s Hamilton factory, milk from the Pukeatua property is destined to become infant formula.
