By Lachlan Ellis<\/p>\n
Moorabool\u2019s not really known as a dairy farming region, but one local farm is producing over 100,000 litres of milk a week, and they don\u2019t do it by hand.
\nRon and Heather Trigg run the largest free-standing barn come dairy farm in Moorabool, milking around 400 Friesian cows with robots on their Bungaree property.
\nThe cows are milked three times a day with the DeLaval milking machines, once every eight hours, and wander into a milking machine on their own when they feel they need to be milked \u2013 Mr Trigg calls them \u201ccreatures of habit\u201d.
\nA microchip in each cow is read by the machine to check whether the cow requires milking \u2013 if not, the exit door automatically opens, and the cow returns to the feeding area. If it does need to be milked, laser lights line up its teats, wash them, and then attach suction cups to milk the cow.
\nA screen on each machine shows the yields of each cow, how many litres from the prior milking to current.
\nMr Trigg said he and his wife have been dairy farmers \u201call our lives\u201d, and though the machines had removed some of the physical work from running the farm, he still is up at 5 am, 7 days a week.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve had this running for five years\u2026farmers in Australia and New Zealand don\u2019t tend to milk this way because we\u2019ve got green grass, and that\u2019s the cheapest way to produce milk. But in this district where we\u2019re so wet and cold in winter time, this system is ideal for us,\u201d Mr Trigg told the Moorabool News.
\n\u201cThe cows produce more being milked three times a day than the traditional two, it takes pressure off them with getting mastitis.\u201d
\nA tractor drops feed silage at either side of the barn twice a day \u2013 Mr Trigg says the farm goes through \u201c20 tonnes of the stuff\u201d every single day, with each cow producing 60 \u2013 80 litres of milk daily.
\nOn average, the farm produces around 15,000 litres of milk per day. If there are any issues with the machines, Mr Trigg gets a notification on his phone. Detailed statistics on the cows and their milk can also be viewed on his computer.
\nAutomated scrapers push the cows\u2019 manure to one end of the huge barn, where it\u2019s used as fertiliser on the paddocks. The farm grows all the feed for the cows on the 1000-acre property.
\nIt\u2019s also hoped that in the future, methane gas created from the manure by a \u2018biodigester\u2019 can be used to partially power the farm, saving the Triggs thousands of dollars a year.
\nThe milk from the farm is trucked to Melbourne and Warrnambool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Lachlan Ellis Moorabool\u2019s not really known as a dairy farming region, but one local farm is producing over 100,000 litres of milk a week, and they don\u2019t do it by hand. Ron and Heather Trigg run the largest free-standing barn come dairy farm in Moorabool, milking around 400 Friesian cows with robots on their […]<\/p>\n