Home-Built Milk Parlor Just Right For Small Farm

Home-Built Milk Parlor Just Right For Small Farm DAIRY EQUIPMENT & IDEAS Dairy Equipment & Ideas 25-4-4 Few people with back trouble would consider milking cows as a way to generate income, but it didn't stop Samuel Gassert, Hammond, New York. Starting on a shoestring and not much else, Gassert has established a small herd that he's milking in a four-cow parlor that he designed himself so he wouldn't have to bend over. "You just don't find small parlors anywhere," he says. "So I had to make it myself". "We have just 100 acres. I'd been raising dairy heifers, but we needed more income than fully stocking with heifers could generate," he explains. "I penciled it out and decided if we could milk cows, it would increase our per acre income," Gassert says. Gassert's farm had an old horse barn that was in the process of collapsing. "At one time, it was quite a building, but the concrete floor was badly eroded and the foundation was crumbling, " he says. While he was remodeling the barn, he installed a pit for the four-cow parlor. He took measurements for his stalls from a neighbor's bigger parlor and paid a scrap dealer $0.25 a pound for used 2-in. steam pipe. He used a Makita sawzall and a welder to put the parlor together. He says he felt the herringbone design would speed up milking since it allows cows to go in and out easily, and he could let out the back cow and refill the stall if the front cow milked out slower. He added feed bunks for the stalls made from 55 gal. plastic drums cut in half. "In total, I spent less than $300 on the parlor itself," he says. He says it was no problem finding an old, useable bulk tank. After checking with the local cooperative where he intended to sell his milk, he bought a used automatic pail milker with a dumping station. "We're now milking 21 cows in just under an hour," he says. He's established an intensive grazing program to get the most feed per acre from his small farm, although he needs to buy grain and protein supplement. "Some of my fields need better drainage before they can be put into use this way," he notes. Once he can get drainage installed, though, he figures he'll be able to increase his herd without having to buy forage. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Samuel Gassert, 3515 County Route 6, Hammond, N.Y. 13646 (ph 315 375-4318).

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