Trotter family farm – Warkworth, Northland
Parlour type: Herringbone
Milking points: 30
Herd size: 330
Installation date: August 2012

Dairy farming duo – and husband & wife team – Ian and Jo Trotter have had the ADF System installed in their dairy shed for over 10 years – and they are just as happy with it now as they were 10 years ago.

“We still love it!” says wife Jo. “It saves time not having to manually teat spray and all teats get an even amount of spray. We don’t have to worry about over milking. We have saved time and money not having to treat mastitis cows and there is no cross contamination between cows. We have total peace of mind that mastitis won’t be passed from cow to cow.”

The pair were originally looking at automatic teat spraying systems for their dairy. “None were effective enough for our liking until we saw ADF,” says Jo.

Since installing the automatic dipping and flushing system in August 2012, the Trotter family has saved around 20 minutes per milking due to not manually teat spraying cows or manually removing cups.

They have also saved a considerable amount of money in vet bills due to improved cow health. “We’ve spent less money on antibiotics as mastitis cases have massively reduced,” Jo says. “In our best season we treated only 6 clinical cases of mastitis cows in the whole season.”

Improvement in teat condition is another health benefit that the family has seen. “Teat lesions are pretty much a thing of the past, and if the teats start getting dry and cracking it is easily fixed by adding more teat conditioner in the teat spray through the ADF system,” Jo explains.

Milk quality has also improved. “We have a lower average SCC and haven’t had a SCC grade since installing ADF.”

Everyone on the Trotter family farm loves the ADF System. “The cows we have asked say they love the ADF System!” jokes Jo. “Our milkers also love it – faster milkings with no need for manual teat spraying, paired with the automatic cup removers (ACRs) – it’s brilliant. We can feel confident that cows don’t over milk even if someone is in the shed by themselves,” she says.

“We can’t imagine life without ADF. We absolutely recommend the ADF System to other dairy farmers and we already know of farmers wishing they could have it too!”