“If cow health is a priority to you I would certainly recommend ADF”

Ryan and Billie Moffat from Deltop Dairy in South Canterbury are very impressed with the ADF System and how much it has improved the health of their herd in the 7 years they have had the system.

“We first heard of ADF at the Fieldays event and online when we were looking at building a new milking shed on the farm. We made the decision to go with ADF as we loved the concept that allows us to counter the mastitis issues we were having. A lot of these cases were staph aurous which is contagious between cow to cow in the milking shed,” explains Ryan.

Cow health has significantly improved at Deltop Dairy since installing ADF. “The biggest benefits we have seen is the reduced mastitis cases and lower somatic cell count (SCC). SCC average the last 5 seasons have been between 80,000 and 115,000. Teat condition is good with the ADF system, and we also like the benefit of a sick cow not transmitting to other cows through the milking cups due to the automatic rinsing.”

“We have saved time and money in having a reduced amount of mastitis cases. There has been a big reduction in antibiotics use, especially around dry off time where only the cows required are getting dry cow antibiotics. This would now be down to 30-40% and this number should continue to decline. We are also paid a premium for high quality milk under SCC thresholds which is an added bonus for us,” says Ryan.

Installation went smoothly in July 2013 onto the 54-bail rotary with a Read plant. “We are milking around 470 cows this season but fluctuate between 450-500. The cows are milked twice a day average for 270-day lactation. Production is more than 550kg milk solids per year,” Ryan says.

“Overall I would say the ADF System is very reliable, achieving high standards in udder and animal health. If cow health is a priority to you I would certainly recommend the ADF System to other dairy farmers.”