At the moment, there are more than 60,000 dairies scattered throughout the U.S. Most of these dairies are situated in states like Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. But there are dairies in every state that specialize in helping to provide the country with dairy production.
If you do dairy farming, you’re probably well aware of the fact that you need quite a bit of dairy equipment to do your job. From homogenizers and milk pumps to pasteurizers and separators, you’ll have to get your hands on all this milking equipment.
What you might not realize, though, is that you’ll also need to get into the habit of servicing dairy equipment on a regular basis. Otherwise, your business isn’t going to last in the dairy industry for very long.
Want to know how often you’ll need to service your dairy equipment? Continue reading to discover more about when it’ll need to be done.
New Dairy Equipment Should Be Serviced After About 750 Hours
When you first start up a dairy, you’ll need to have a milking machine set up. Also commonly called a milking parlor, it’ll consist of a bunch of dairy equipment that will help you to milk your cows efficiently.
After you have this dairy equipment put into place, you should be able to use it for at least a few months before having to service it. But it’ll be important for you to have it serviced once you’ve used it for about 750 hours.
You aren’t going to have to service dairy equipment this often once it’s been broken in a little bit more. But during your initial dairy equipment service, a company will be able to make sure that your milking parlor is running smoothly.
If it is, you can continue using your dairy equipment as is. But if it isn’t, a company will be able to tweak your milking parlor so that it’s more efficient overall.
Existing Dairy Equipment Should Be Serviced Every 1,500 Hours or So
After servicing dairy equipment for the first time, you aren’t going to have to worry about doing it again for a little while. Generally speaking, you should be able to get another 1,500 hours out of it before scheduling more service.
You’ll also be able to go 1,500 hours at a time in between service calls from there on out. Unless you suspect that there might be something wrong with any of your dairy equipment, you can keep on using it like normal without having to be concerned about having it serviced.
Dairy Equipment Will Need to Be Serviced Once Every 200 Days on Average
When dairy farmers hear that they only have to service dairy equipment about once every 1,500 hours, many of them get excited. There are only 8,760 hours in an entire year, so some of them are under the impression that this means they should only have to service dairy equipment every few years.
But this is not the case. In reality, you’re going to have to service your dairy equipment way more often than that since you’re likely going to have dozens and sometimes even hundreds of cows being milked at once with your dairy equipment.
If you have, say, 250 cows on your farm and you spend about 7 hours each day milking them, you’ll run through 1,500 hours within about 200 days. As a result, there will be some years where you’ll have to service your dairy equipment twice within a 12-month period.
You’ll also have to service it more than that if you have a herd of cows that’s on the larger side. It all depends on how big your dairy farm is.
Dairy Equipment Should Be Tested Twice Each Year
Most years, you’re going to be able to get away with only servicing dairy equipment once. But even still, you should try to get yourself into the routine of having your milking equipment tested twice each year if you can.
To do this, you’ll want to call in an independent technician who can carry out both a static and a dynamic test on your milking machine. This test will ensure that your dairy equipment is running in the way that it should at all times.
By having your dairy equipment tested, you should be able to avoid the need for more frequent service. You should also be able to steer clear of having to make any major repairs to your milking equipment.
Old Dairy Equipment May Need to Be Serviced More Often
As long as you invest in high-quality dairy equipment from the start, you should be able to get a lot of life out of it. It’s not uncommon at all for dairy equipment to last for more than a decade.
But one thing you’ll want to keep in mind is that, as milking equipment gets older, you might need to begin servicing it more often. A reputable company will be able to tell you more about how often you should service your equipment based on its condition.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to think about getting rid of older dairy equipment just because it’s going to require more service. But you should start to plan accordingly once you realize that your equipment might be on its last legs.
Replacing Dairy Equipment Can Cut Down On How Often It Should Be Serviced
All of your dairy equipment isn’t going to break down on you at once. Much like a car or any other piece of equipment, you’re going to have certain aspects of your dairy equipment that will conk out on you faster than others.
If a particular element of your dairy equipment starts to cause trouble, you should think about replacing it sooner rather than later. By doing this, you’ll prevent small problems with your dairy equipment from turning into big problems and forcing you to do more extensive service.
If something like a positive displacement blower begins to give out on you, you should give serious thought to buying a new one. Learn more here about which one you should purchase.
Hiring the Right Company to Service Dairy Equipment Is Important
If you know that you’re going to need to service dairy equipment soon, you shouldn’t bring just any old company on board to assist you. You should instead aim to develop a relationship with one of the leading companies in the dairy industry.
The company that you hire to help you with servicing dairy equipment should have the following qualities:
- They should have a wealth of experience within the dairy industry
- They should know how to service your specific dairy equipment
- They should have nothing but positive reviews from dairy farmers
- They should have affordable prices on their dairy equipment services
- They should have enough open space in their schedule to accommodate your needs
There are probably going to be a handful of companies in your area that can service dairy equipment. The first time you need to do it, you should do your homework on as many of them as you can so that you’re able to choose the best one of the bunch.
Servicing Dairy Equipment Should Help It to Work Better and Last Longer
If you don’t make it your mission to service your dairy equipment early and often, it won’t be too long before you begin to run into problems. Your dairy equipment isn’t going to be able to process milk as efficiently as you would like when you’re not servicing it.
You might also put yourself in a position where you’ll have to replace your dairy equipment sooner than you may have anticipated due to a lack of service. You’ll kick yourself for not taking the servicing of dairy equipment more seriously in the end.
Servicing dairy equipment is going to call for you to make an investment on your part. But you’ll find that it’ll be well worth it once you see how much stronger it makes all the components of your dairy equipment.
Take Care of Your Dairy Equipment and It’ll Take Care of You
Your dairy equipment is obviously the lifeblood of your dairy farm. If it’s not humming along like it’s supposed to, it won’t be long before it’s taking a toll on your bottom line.
It’s why you should make servicing dairy equipment one of your top priorities. By having the proper service done to it, you’ll be doing what’s best for your dairy farm and helping it to be more successful over time.
Would you like some more tips that will help you to run your business better than you are now? Look for them in some of the other articles that have been posted on our blog.
