MilkHub 4x4 team finishes second in class for series

Milkhub would like to congratulate Sue & Rowan Huckstep on their great results from the National 4x4 Series. They have been great ambassadors for MilkHub and have given us some exciting entertainment!

Here is Rowan's final update:

"The 4x4 National Trial Series is over for another year with the final round held south of Thames on Saturday 7 April. We finished 2nd on the day in A class and 2nd in the series for A class. We also got 2nd in A class for  the Central Zone Series (a series of 3 rounds within National Series). We knew we had to win on Saturday to win the series and it just wasn't our day. We finished on equal points with the winner but they had more round wins so take 1st place  

Some hazards were pretty hard and technical with a lot of rocks. We had an axle break inside the diff so the whole thing had to be taken out and dismantled taking about an hour and a half which probably made me drive a little more cautiously after that (not on purpose though)."

Thanks Rowan & Sue, and all the best for your campaign next year!

Open Day & Demo at Kaitaia

Joe & Fiona King hosted an open day at Elbury Farm last Friday demonstrating their new shed milking 600 cows.

The King's brand new 60 Bail Rotary Dairy shed features a stainless steel platform, 75 m square yard and return race doubling up as feed pad, MilkHub auto drafting, flood wash and good effluent management systems.

Contributing companies included: Dairy Build; MilkHub; Peter Covich Electrical; Farmlands; De Laval; Northland Metal Industries Ltd; Placid Rotaries.

Read the Northern Age feature pages here: page 8, page 9

Congratulations to our Field Days competition winners!

Congratulations to the winners of our recent Field Day competitions. Your local reps will be in touch to deliver your prizes.

Play Tag and Win! (Southern FD)

Vicki Simmons

10 Straw Draw (Northland FD)

Eian and Phenny Brown

10 Straw Draw (Central Dist FD)

Hazel Schroder

CRV Gift Basket (Central Dist FD)

Ken Williamson

10 Straw Draw (DWN Conf)

Heather Woodcock

Canterbury User Group Training - April

We're looking forward to our advanced user training session focusing on drying off with MilkHub. Participants have been notified already so this is a friendly reminder to put the date in your diaries and bring your questions for Moonyeen, Josh and Ross.

Date: April 12th

Time: 10.30am - 2.30pm

Venue: Ashburton Hotel

Let us know asap if we've inadvertently missed you out.

There will be further User Group Training Days held in other regions later in the year.

Plant cleaning made easy with Automation

In some dairy sheds you may be happy to eat your dinner off the floor. In others, even a hardy street cleaner would fear to tread. Anyone can all see cleaning issues on the shed floor but what about the parts of the plant that come into contact with the cow and the milk?

Poor cleaned plant gives opportunity for bacteria to gain hold and that can lead to hygiene downgrades. With poorly cleaned cups there is a chance of spreading infections from the hospital herd to the healthy cows next milking.

The MilkHub dairy automation and management system uses a 4-in-1 sensor to measure cleaning solution and help you detect cleaning issues on a daily basis.

Cleaning Summary as displayed on broadcast screenFollowing every milking a highly visible broadcast screen displays your cleaning information. The screen graphic gives an easy to read display depicting the platform with each bail clearly identified and suspect cleaning issues highlighted in colour.

The system also communicates cleaning information back to the MilkHub online management webpage. This means you can keep an eye on cleaning performance when ever and where ever you like. You can even look back each milking to see if there are morning or afternoon issues or if issues are being fixed in good time.

Plant cleaning is measured by monitoring water temperature, flow rate and volume flushing through each cluster. Low temperature may mean milk fats are not melted and remain attached to pipe surfaces. Poor flow may indicate lack of force to wash features like joins and corners. Lack of volume may indicate milk residue is not completely flushed out.

Maybe the hot water cylinder needs turning up, or jetters need adjusting, or components need servicing to remove blockages or repair leaks. Once you know there are issues you can do something about it!

The Dairyman, April 2012