During the summer of 2003, Allan Alston and brother James together with their dedicated staff built a new dairy parlour system, with a view to increasing their dairy enterprise over the next few years to 250 cows.
SGARIBOLDI diet feeder to pay for itself in 2 years
During the summer of 2003, Allan Alston and brother James together with their dedicated staff built a new dairy parlour system, with a view to increasing their dairy enterprise over the next few years to 250 cows. All of the herd's own heifer calves are to be reared, thus increasing feed requirements substantially, and the new buildings were laid out in such a way to be beneficial for diet feeding. All that was needed was the right machine for the job.
The farm bales all of its own grass and clamps 40 acres of feed - peas under sown with barley and grass. With over 4,000 bales of silage to chop and mix, 2 diet feeder machines were selected for trial during the autumn of 2003.
A SGARIBOLDI 12 cubic metre horizontal won the day for its strength of build, mixing capabilities and having only one auger. Both brothers thought it would be more reliable, having previously experienced a competitor?s trial machine with 2 augers which constantly kept stopping the tractor drive. The SGARIBOLDI was also considered to be easier to operate with no external hydraulic drives off the tractor and being self-contained. All of these features have since been proven correct in practice.
A true Scottish tattie and turnip blend
With the farm having access to distillers' dark grains, potatoes and turnips at seasonal times, as well as growing their own whole crop and baled silaged, the diet feeder is used to differing 'chop and mix' products throughout the year. Once a fortnight, a bulk quantity of distillers' dark grains, maize gluten and soya is mixed and stored for 14 days. This is then added to whatever ration is chosen for relevant stock diets, with milking, dry cows and heifers all being fed different ratios during the winter months. A buffer feed is also fed during the milking period, consisting of one bale of silage, 200 kilos of potatoes and turnips plus minerals to help maintain an even ration during the 2 hour milking cycle.
+ 3 litre advantage
Allan proudly reports 'We saw a major improvement to our milk yields after just 3 weeks of purchasing the SGARIBOLDI feeder. Our yields went up by approx. 3 litres per cow and I firmly believe this due to the quality of mixing and dietary control we can now provide for our cows. Because our cows don't bulk up on fibre anymore, our volume of feed is reduced whilst our cows' health has improved. The positive difference this SGARIBOLDI machine has made to our herd - plus our time and profit - is amazing.'
LELY finance deal has paid off
Allan took delivery of his feeder in mid December 2003, having purchased it on a LELY finance plan where payment is not required until November 2004. 'I reckon that with the increased yield of milk we are getting, we shall have saved half of its cost by the time we have to pay for the machine. We can now feed quality mixes rather than quantity, and access products as available,' reports Alan with a smile. 'As a bonus, we also used the SGARIBOLDI to mix up our sheep feed and transport it out into the fields during a snowy time during the winter.'
AM Phillips arranged for the trial of this new product, having reassured Allan that full service support would be available even though it was the first SGARIBOLDI in the area. The Alston family's trust in all concerned certainly seems to have paid off in several ways!