Ridgetown Campus’ stanchion barn was the first in southwest Ontario to adopt DeLaval MilkMaster technology with DelPro Herd Management software in the 1990s.
The portable MU480 units – now able to connect wirelessly to DelPro 3.5 Herd Management software – offer numerous advantages:
- Vacuum stability system for safe, fast milking
- DHIA-approved milk meter to accurately record individual cow milk yields
- Smart ID – reliable cow identification system
- Remote connectivity to herd management system
The donated milking units were originally installed at Maple-Ain Farms in Smith Falls, Ontario, in 2007. The dairy was a DeLaval test farm for the MU480 units and also the first in the world to connect them with DelPro in a stanchion barn setting.
Last July, Hunter started milking with eight DelPro MU486 milking units – the first of their kind at a reference farm in North America. These new, portable milking units extend the management technologies of robot and parlor applications to stanchion barn farmers.
Important upgrades to the MU486 units include conductivity monitoring and blood detection for alerting infections and the capability to record air entry into liners indicating a kick-off or poor milk out.
MU486 milking units will be available for commercial sales in Canada in the first half of 2013. PD
—From DeLaval news release
