Certain farm equipment is worth having available for dairy farming and long-term milk production. Equipment can aid in minimizing time and costs and improve efficiencies to ensure your efforts are spent doing the correct things and not wasted on manual tasks.
If you’re new to the world of dairy farming, critical ag equipment falls into four categories:
- General-purpose milking equipment
- Milk cooling and storage equipment
- Equipment designed to improve cow comfort
- Miscellaneous barn and transport equipment
What you need for equipment depends on operational costs, labour, time, and size. There are no cutting corners on a dairy farm. The machinery you require is what you require. That’s it. Machine feeding is easier and more cost-effective for a larger dairy farm than manual feeding. All sorts of decisions will need to be made based on what you can afford in cost, time, and effort. Harvesting, transportation, and feeding are also inescapable regarding what dairy farm equipment to buy.
A dairy farm requires ongoing management and long-term investment in its machinery and equipment. Here is some of the equipment used on a dairy farm that can optimize and support farm operations.
1. Shelter for Dairy Cows
Your cows need some form of shelter, such as a cowshed. This should be comfortable, dry, and clean. This ensures your cattle are never caught out in the rain, overheating in the summer sun, or are left out in cold winter temperatures without a place to turn.
2. Large Generators
Generators are needed on a dairy farm for several reasons. Strict regulations are surrounding how milk and dairy are to be stored.
Following these rules, large generators are needed to supply heat, cooling, and storage electricity. A source of electricity like this may also be relied upon to power an electric fence.
3. Mist Cooling Systems
A mist cooling system is essential for a dairy farm to keep the cows cool during summer. A mist cooling system, in this regard, is no different from misting systems in public places or events used for people.
They are placed in tunnel barns or outdoor facilities to help drop the core temperature of cows, reducing the likelihood of heat stress.
4. Feeding Equipment
Depending on your method, a lot of feeding equipment can be used on a dairy farm. Using a grain feed, a feed grinder is something you will need. A grinder mixes and grinds cattle fodder and is necessary to feed cows, allowing you to identify the precise combination of ingredients you want to supply.
You may also want additional feeding equipment, such as a chaff cutter, fodder grinder, and green fodder cutters.
5. Milking Machine
Milking equipment is a necessity on a dairy farm. A milking machine is used to extract milk from cattle. Normally, this would be done by hand traditionally. However, milking machines have made the process much easier in recent decades.
It doesn’t hurt the cows and can reduce stress during lactation. With a milking machine, a vacuum pump is used for suction. Milk is extracted from the animal before being collected through a pipeline.
6. Pasteurizers
A pasteurizer is an essential dairy farm equipment type. A milk pasteurization unit heats the milk to a certain temperature, stirs it constantly, and then cools it to ready it for long-term storage or additional processing.
Pasteurizers kill the bacteria or harmful agents found in milk, which are naturally when extracted from a cow. Pasteurization is needed to make milk safe for human consumption.
7. Milk Tanks For Storage
Packages of various types – pre-stack, milk, interim, and mixing tanks – must be considered and purchased for liquid dairy products storage. They must ensure the product is kept fresh, high-quality, and safe for as long as possible.
Milk coolers and tanks are equipped with cooling systems, ensuring the temperature is precisely controlled, and the milk’s quality is protected.
8. Dairy Processing Equipment
Beyond the question of pasteurized or homogenized, dairy is processed into skim milk, buttermilk, whole milk, evaporated milk, and powdered milk. It also makes cheese, butter, ice cream, yogurt, and more.
Some of this processing may occur at the farm, but most are, fortunately, done at dairy plants. The primary responsibility of a dairy farm is therefore tied to storage and transportation.
9. Dairy Farming Equipment
There is a long list of dairy farm equipment, some mandatory and others optional. Cattle fodder trucks, fodder chaff cutters, tractors, harvesters, reapers, mud pumps, balers, feed baskets, loader tractors, motorized bore wells, tagging equipment, and fodder compacting presses are all common.
Depending on the size of the farm, equipment used in harvesting, storage, and transportation are all worth consideration.
