Milksmart Case Study - Bragg

Shaving time and cost in the shed

South Canterbury dairy farmer Mitchell Bragg recently undertook a Milksmart assessment which helped the whole team improve their efficiency in the shed.

Minutes shaved here and there can add up to major cost and time savings for a dairy farm business.

From the left: Mitchell Bragg with farm staff Alex Gallaghar and Liz Lawson (front) and Ashish Kumar and Monica Lorry (back).

South Canterbury farm manager Mitchell Bragg understands this more than most, having opened his own milking processes up for analysis as part of the development of DairyNZ's Milksmart programme.

An assessment has been carried out on the 266ha farm and recommendations made by experts to boost the milk harvesting efficiency of the business.

Mitchell encourages farmers to take advantage of the expertise on offer. "There has been a lot of knowledge gathered and since it is free, you are stupid not to use it," he says.

The small problems are what add up, especially with a large herd. Mitchell manages a farm with 910 cows milked using a 60 bale rotary shed. The milk production target for the season is 320,000kgMS, which works out to around 80,000kgMS for each of the four staff members.

"We learnt from the assessment that even things like better communication between staff makes a difference and it is an area where we can improve on right now," says Mitchell. "Sometimes we would have a bit of a wait where one herd is being milked and another is kept waiting in the yard.

"Fixing the small problems in sheds, like stray electricity, can help big time further down the track."

Other recommendations will take longer to follow up on. "We plan to change the exit off the platform next winter by fixing the laneways out of the shed which will include concreting."

Milksmart also confirms good practices.

"The assessment showed they were putting through 470 cows an hour which proves good cow flow, and cup removers is one of the reasons for this," says Mitchell.

Mitchell says the programme covers the right topics. "Selling milk is how farmers make their money and the cowshed is where that money is made, so it makes sense to focus on this area."