14/11/2022
Lloyd and Sharon and our team at Tanner Industries would like to say a big thankyou to James McConnell and son Daniel who have started the 2022 season in their brand spanking new Delaval E100 54 bail rotary. Daniel is milking the original herd from 1979 with the bloodline being retained through various farm sharemilkers and transitions. Father Norm McConnell originally purchased the 800 acre farm in 1979 which was then a sheep farm, this was then split in half between James siblings. Father (Norm) and son (James) decided to convert to dairy and built a 32 aside herringbone with reid slide pulsators to "future proof" the farm milking 420 cows which they later extended to a 44 aside. In subsequent years Norm managed to purchase an adjacent bush block and cleared it with James, now making the milking platform 200 hectares. In 2021 father (James) and son (Daniel, after milking on other local dairy farms with a stint of mechanic and farm maintenance jobs worked his way up and is now sharemilking the family farm) decided to "future proof" the now 700 cow dairy farm and that lead them to look into options for ease of milking and manpower with one decision that was made 10 years ago and that was "Tanner's were going to build it" (What a legend!) which we did also as a father (Lloyd Tanner) and son (Kain Tanner) joint effort along with David Thompson, Jordan Johnson and Regan Henare. The Delaval E100 has the latest herd management technology recording accurate individual cow milk yields from the milk meters and weights from the weigh scales making feeding decisions a breeze. James likes how his Delpro system talks to the drafting gate as one system which enables cow assessments to be easily made over a cup of coffee and a biscuit in front of the computer or on the phone at any time of the day or night which can also be done at the bail minus the coffee cup for quick drafting decisions. The platform has on-deck teatspraying, auto cup removers and retention, auto plant wash and a Delaval compact milk chiller system network connected. It is always great to see the cows in the shed enjoying themselves after the build process and Daniel I just have to say for a first milking and with your cowboy boots on it was done in style!
