Farmer/owner: David Christensen
Farm location: Kingston Bagpuize, Oxfordshire
Farm name: David Christensen
Herd: 620 Three way cross-breeds: BrownSwiss, Swedish Red and Friesian Holsteins
Milking system: 60 point Fullwood rotary abreast
Date of installation: February 2001
As far as David Christensen is concerned ‘no news is good news’. With a dairy herd numbering 620 three-way cross-breeds; Brown Swiss, Swedish Red and Holstein Friesans, the last thing he wants is for his team to constantly report operating problems.The good news is that his decision to install a Fullwood 60 point rotary abreast parlour, has given him a ‘big fat zero’ as far as problems are concerned.
By avoiding costly and time-consuming production difficulties, David has been able to produce a hugely impressive 50 million litres of milk since the parlour was installed in February 2001. But the benefits haven’t stopped at a smooth-running, trouble-free milking operation. By reducing milking times from up to five hours to just under three, has improved conditions for both the cows and his farm team. As David puts it “ with much faster turn around we don’t have to keep the cows hanging around as long and our staff can get home earlier too” As well as running Kingston Hill Farm David is also a Director of Milk Link, so he has lots of demands on his time.That’s why he emphasizes that it is very much a team effort that produces 20 tonnes of milk each day from his dairy farm. But undoubtedly the best testimony for his Fullwood parlour is expressed in David’s own words, “we’ve had 11 years of stress-free milking and you can’t put a price on that”.