Mike Adams, Arrow Dairies, Shed 3

Nind Dairy Services team onsite getting into the install

Stage Three: Nind Dairy Services staff on-site at Arrow Dairies

It’s been busy at Mike Adam’s third shed at Arrow Dairies. The rotary milking platform has been poured and it’s ready for the plant to go in. Work has started on fitting out the milk lines, bails, and the GEA milking plant which is on site. Electricians and plumbers from Nind Diary Services are plumbing and wiring up the shed which is now live.

Doug and Ethan from the Nind Dairy Services plumbing team have been installing and plumbing up the shed wash down pump, the farm water pump for stock water, and the cooler pump. They’ve also put in the hot water cylinders that supply hot water to the plant and vat wash.

A double bank plate has been installed. The first bank uses bore water to chill the milk to around 17 degrees before the milk passes through the second bank where is chilled to below 7 degrees with glycol from the state of the art AquaCHILL unit.

One of the key benefits of the AquaCHILL snap chiller with iConverter is that it creates costs savings through heat recovery, part of the glycol chilling process means it heats water while cooling milk, supplying the hot water back to the cylinders at 60 degrees.

A Solu-Dose unit has been installed, this dispenses minerals into the farm water system for cows. The Solu-Dose is a user-friendly nutrient injector, designed to minimise farm maintenance. With few moving parts and by using vacuum power, the units are low maintenance.

The electrical team have been busy wiring up the shed and have recently installed a vacuum pump to drive the milking plant. A backing gate is in place and ready to be wired up by the Nind Dairy Services electricians. We’re looking forward to getting all the GEA milking gear installed and commissioning the shed soon.

Doug and Ethan installing the water pumps at Arrow Dairies

Some of the GEA plant onsite ready to be installed

Stage Two: Work on Mike Adams' 54-bale rotary shed continues

The new 54-bale shed for Mike Adams is coming along well with Nind Dairy Services staff working hard to get it completed and ready for milking before the first of June. Ewan, an apprentice for the Nind Dairy electrical team has been on-site helping the guys get the wiring up and ready before the switchboard goes in.

The rotary platform floor has been poured and bail posts have been put in place. Rotary platforms are ideal for dairy workers as there’s less walking required on the milker and cow flow is less affected by interactions between cows and people, which gives quick entry and exit times. Along with slow milking cows not holding up more than one cluster.

The centre post has gone in the cow yard. The silo pad, which was bare before now has the AquaCHILL milk chiller installed, and the milk vat put in place. Snap chilling with an AquaCHILL unit is ideal for meeting milk quality compliance and the new milk cooling regulations that come in on June 1st. Snap chilling protects the milk quality by reducing the risk of unwanted bacteria growing in milk that is above temperature. Snap chilling ensures the levels of bactoscan (the bacterial count), thermoduric (heat resistant bacteria) and coliforms (wet weather/manure bacteria) are all below safe levels by instantly chilling milk at harvest.

Double bank plate cooler and milk filters

Stage One: Mike Adams' New Shed

Nind Dairy Services have started on their third shed build for Mike Adams at Arrow Dairies. Mike’s new shed is a 54-bale rotary shed with a snap chiller. He found the results from having a AquaCHILL snap chiller were so good that he had no hesitation in ordering one for his third shed.

What Mike Adams has found from having a snap chiller, especially with these new regulations coming in around milk cooling, that it gives him peace of mind. Even when they had a power cut for 4-5 hours, the AquaCHILL snap chiller managed to keep the milk below 10’c during that entire time.

Another reason Mike has decided to get an AquaCHILL snap chiller with his third shed is because of the lower energy costs. A snap chiller can save you up to 37% in energy savings when compared to standard vat chillers.

Mike has been with Nind Dairy Services for a long time. Nine years ago, Nind Dairy Services originally built a 54-bale shed for Mike Adams, four years ago Nind Dairy Services built a 64-bale shed, with a snap chiller. Mike was so happy with the results from his snap chiller (especially with the new milk cooling regulations going in this year) that he decided to go with one on his new 54 bale, rotary shed that is being built this year.