Planning the Milking Center in Expanding Dairies

Abstract

This paper focuses on large dairies that want to expand and milk more cows through an existing parlor or by building a new parlor. The expansion process can be divided into the following three phases: 1) financial evaluation, 2) design, and 3) construction. A financial evaluation should be carried out first to determine the resources that are available for expanding the dairy operation. This phase is extremely important, considering that 68% of the dairies that expand have cash flow problems within the first 2 yr of operation. The next phase is to design the milking center, and options include expanding the present parlor or constructing a new parlor. The present parlor can be expanded by addition of stalls, but group size must also expand to maintain cow flow at the larger parlor size. Group size can often be increased by combining corrals or free-stall alleys. The third phase in the expansion is to determine the most efficient milking procedure during the construction or remodeling of the facilities.