Farmer/owner: Familia Pages Gou
Farm location: Vilardanal, Catalunya, Spain
Farm name: S.A.T CAN POL
Herd: 180 cows
Milking system: Parallel Parlour Fullwood Index 90
Date of installation: July 2010
This story begins in the 1960s when the family had only six cows all being hand milked. The milk was cooled in a bucket placed in a nearby water hole – once when Sr. Pages Gou was fetching the milk he found a snake coiled at the bottom of the bucket! In 1967 mechanical milking was introduced and slowly one bucket became two and three and so on.
The first Fullwood parlour was installed in 1972; a 4-point tandem milking system for thirty cows. And by 1976 the level of sophistication on the farm took another leap forward when an 800 litre Packo cooling tank was added. In 1982 the family moved to a new dairy and upgraded the milking and cooling systems to a Fullwood 6×12 herringbone and a Packo 1500 litre tank. By 1996 they had doubled the size to a 12×12 parlour and by 2004 a 10,000 litre tank was required.
To bring this story right up to date, Familia Pages Gou now have a herd of 180 cows and have recently installed a Fullwood Index 90 rapid exit parlour and another 10,000 litre Packo tank. They aim to reach 300 cows and 10,000 litres / day over the next year or so.