Case Study

Evan Dela Rue

Scope

The loyal and long standing Qubik client started dairy farming in 1959, 10 years later purchasing the farm with some help from his employer.  At the time it had a 6 bail double up walk through milking parlour.

An opportunity came along to purchase a second hand 12 bail Waikato Milking Systems Machine which Qubik installed for him, milking became a bit easier.  Upgrading again later on to an 18 bail as the business grew.  Evan was able to milk more cows in a timely fashion but everything was a bit tight.

In 2023 Evan bit the bullet and built a new shed not far from the old.  Evan said it was time to bring the shed into the present. It is getting harder to find staff so a more reliable and user friendly milk shed was a must.

Evan says that taking your time to find the right place to put the shed has paid off, everyone involved were able to carry on with the job at task, the new build not getting in the way of current races so the cows and normal farm activity were not disrupted.  The shed was turned around facing the east to block the westerlies and create a comfortable sheltered milking environment.  Jake Thompson 50/50 share milker says that the flow of the shed is great and is working really well.

Evan went for a 24 bail Waikato Milking Systems Supa 4 herringbone which is currently milking around 250 cows.  Qubik supplied and installed refrigeration, chilled water, water reticulation and effluent systems.

Qubik installed SmartPuls, a digital pulsation system designed to produce accurate results time and time again. The new generation precision solenoids inside SmartPuls are smaller and have a greater life expectancy - now exceeding 200 million cycles.

The Glacier Plus 20kw water chiller chills a 25,000 litre underground concrete tank of water to 6⁰C outside of milking time. It then circulates the water during milking through the second stage of the plate cooler reducing milk temperature to 7-10⁰C before entering the milk vat.

With the installation of the water chiller a heat recovery unit was installed with hot water entering the hot water cylinders at a rate of 2-3 litres per minute at a temperature of 50-60⁰C dependant on the incoming water temperature.

Looking back, Evan says it’s amazing to see how far the farm has come and is proud to now have a new shed on it.  He has always had a trusted relationship with Qubik so they were the obvious go to when building a new shed.