Milking parlour plans submitted to avoid 'catastrophic breakdown'
Plans have been submitted plans for a new milking parlour to be built at a county farm to avoid a ‘catastrophic breakdown’ of their ageing facility.
Applicant Simon Heath has submitted plans to Telford & Wrekin Council for a ‘state of the art’ milking parlour at Stockton Grange Farm near Newport.
“The upgrading of the existing milking parlour is not physically possible, the replacement milking parlour is the option available to the applicants,” says a planning statement submitted with the proposal.
“The applicants run a successful diary and arable enterprise. This is a specialist unit which is looking to continue to develop its business to ensure their continued business success.”
The applicant says that the existing 50-point rotary parlour was installed more than 20 years ago and is utilised continuously for 18 hours a day.
Owners of the farm are looking to ‘invest for the next 20 to 30 years' in a 100-point milking parlour.
“Rotary milking parlours are designed to provide a comfortable and stress-free environment for cows during milking,” added the planning statement.
“The cows stand on a slowly rotating platform. This reduces the need for them to move or reposition themselves, resulting in less physical strain and stress.
“The potential losses to the applicants if the aged rotary parlour was to break down or not work would be catastrophic (due to the welfare and health issues caused to the milking herd) and would likely seeing the closing of the business, hence the applicants are looking to de-risk their business and invest in a modern state of the art purpose built replacement 100-point rotary parlour and dairy facility.”
The applicant added that livestock are housed all year round and are provided with the ‘highest welfare standards’ which is evident by the amount of milk produced.
There is no planned increase in cow numbers and the old milking parlour will stay in situ as a back-up and to train young heifers who have not been milked before.
The new building is planned to run off green energy supplied by the farm’s renewable energy company and will be insulated throughout.
The new milking parlour will also look to reduce standing time of the cows and increase time that the cows are sitting or lying down in cow cubicle sheds.
Technology in the new facility is planned to include a touch screen computer which would allow the stockman to monitor the cows whilst being milked to review cow health, milk quality and performance.
The technology allows the applicants to identify potential issues or health concerns with the cows enabling early intervention and improving the welfare of the cows.
Plans can be viewed on the Telford & Wrekin Council’s website, application number TWC/2023/0784. Comments can be made during the consultation phase which ends on January 9.
