Description
45 dairy cows get milked in a mobile milking parlour on pasture to preserve the precious landscape of the Black Forest. Especially, the milking parlour differs from others, because it neither needs water nor electricity. This allows grazing in a segregated area away from the farm buildings.
The farmer planned and built a milking parlour with 5-8 units. The mobile milking parlour is 10 meters long and can be docked to a tractor, which has the advantage of powering the machine. For small cleaning jobs he uses a separate water tank. A milk tank in the front of the trailer samples and precooles the milk for a while until it gets pumped from there into the big milk tank on the farm. This technique allows him to milk in the paddock without having electricity and bypass the cost-intense job to get the cows back and forth twice a day over the steep slopes of the Black Forest. The furthest paddocks are two to two and a half kilometers away. In overall terms the mobile milking parlour has the great advantage of time saving, reducing costs and preserving the precious landscape of the Black Forest.
Farm description
Environment
- Soil type: Other
- Climate: Temperate oceanic climate
Grassland management
- Grazing: Yes
- Grazing management type: continuous stocking
Structure
- Agricultural Area : 85 ha
- Number of animals: 45 milking cows
Why it is working
Grazing is one strategy to maintain good quality grass in areas with steep hillsides, where cutting is difficult. It allows using the land and opens the areas in a steeply hillside of the Black Forest valleys. The enormous advantage of this invention is time savings. Instead of walking long distances to the milking parlour twice a day, the mobile milking parlour comes to them.
Due to the mobile milking parlour is it possible to graze full-time in a segregated area with long distances between the paddocks.
