New Rental Milk Parlor

New Rental Milk Parlor DAIRY EQUIPMENT & IDEAS Dairy Equipment & Ideas 8-4-34 When you're remodeling your old barn, or if you get a chance to buy a bunch of cows before you've got the facilities to handle them, you'll want to investigate a new rental milking parlor developed by Germania Dairy Automation, Waunakee, Wis. The company says its Rent-A-Parlor is not suited for emergency milking situations, such as when a fire or storm burns down a barn, since those cows must be milked immediately, whereas it usually takes 2 to 3 days to deliver the new portable parlor to the farm. By then, notes company president Rolf Reisgies, most dairymen caught in an emergency have already made alternative arrangements. "Our parlor works best for the dairyman who needs additional milking capacity for a planned reason. Maybe he's remodeling his old barn, or has been lucky enough to find a herd of cows and picked them up before he builds the facilities to milk them," says Reisgies. "Using our parlor, he can milk the cows for a while before deciding whether to keep or sell them. Then he can install our parlor permanently or put up a new facility." The Rent-A-Parlor, consisting of a single 6 or double 6, is built extra heavy-duty and mounted on a trailer. The entire parlor is self-contained, complete with its own machine room, vacuum pump, air compressor and its own self-contained CIP system. It's equipped with a pipeline, receiver group, pulsation system, claws and an automatic backflush system. Power-operated entrance and exit gates, and an overhead feeding system, are all available as options. The parlor is mounted on an over-the-road trailer without sides so it must be enclosed ù either in the barn's holding pen, which is the ideal location, or in a lean-to type building constructed temporarily outside the dairy barn. It requires hook-up to sewer, water and electricity. The only major component it doesn't contain is a bulk tank. The trailer is 8-ft. wide, 8 ft. tall, and about 20 ft. long. It can be pulled with a 1-ton pickup. It'll handle 30 cows per hour. Reisgies says the typical rental period is generally from 2 to 4 months. The cost ranges from $95 per day average cost for the first four months, to $25 a day for the 16th month and every month thereafter. For a free booklet explaining the benefits of the new Rent-A-Parlor, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Germania Dairy Automation, P.O. Box 248, Waunakee, Wis. 53597 (ph 608 849-5012).

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.