Milking time in Australia

[centash]

Driving North towards Ballarat today, this area was predominantly dairy. Mix of Holstein and Jersey cows. Didn't have a stop scheduled, trying to make our spot tonite, but I did manage a few pictures. It was around 5 so you can see the cattle heading towards the barn. A simple corrall leads them into the milking area into a parlour, with some creep feed and out the other end. The compressor for the cooler can be seen in the middle picture. A hay barn for round bales and a small machinery shed completed the building setup. You can produce a lot of milk for a low cost with this simple set up.
Ben

 

[john in la]

That is similar to what our older dairies in the deep south look like.

Cows kept on pasture 24/7

A corral to gather the cows for milking.

A 2 room milking barn that has a double 4 stall herringbone milker in 1 room and the milk tank in the other room. The cows get fed in the milking parlor. While the feeder use to just dump a set amount of feed to each cow modern feeders can read what cow is standing there and feed them based on production.

Out side would be a feed storage cylinder with a least 2 compartments. Under it would be a feed grinder and mixer to take the corn and soybean meal and mix and grind it before it was sent to the parlor.

A couple of roof only sheds to store hay or equipment.
Some plastic calf hutches scattered around the yard and you have a old time southern dairy that can milk 100 to 300 cows.

 

[Majorman]

If you are in Ballarat spend time in the Gold Fields Museum and get to an evening show there if possible. If you are going anywhere near Warracknabeal check out the Wheatlands Museum or a bit further on Rupanyup and the Woods Brothers museum. Our family has a wooden horse cart in the Warracknabeal Museum and we are good friends with Micheal Woods who owns the Woods Museum. He has a fantastic collection of decorated biscuit tins and tons of old household stuff from the early settler times. Mention Brian and Ann from England and how we are going to thrash the Aussies in the next Ashes Series.

Also check out the Silo Art Trail.

Brian