What Milking System Parts Should You Keep on Hand?
Consider the Situation
You are driving down the road and get a flat tire, do you call a tow truck or use your spare tire and change it yourself? Each option works, but one will save you time and money! That is what we think about when it comes to service calls and having spare parts on hand.
The Goal
As dairy farmers, we prioritize the well-being of our cattle, coordinate day-to-day procedures, oversee financial matters and plan for the future the best we can. Productivity in the milk barn is greatly dependent on the specific types of equipment required to keep the system running as smoothly as possible. Being prepared for unexpected breakdowns or accidents can avoid service calls, decrease downtime and maximize efficiency.
Keeping spare parts and an accurate inventory of these parts can save you time and money in the event of emergencies and breakdowns. We would like to remind our customers that we may not have the parts you always need in stock, especially if you need them in an emergency or have a ‘nonstandard’ system. Ordering these parts may take a few days or even several weeks to arrive and overnight shipping products can cost several hundred dollars.
Our priority is our customers and how we can better keep their operation running. After-hour service calls are emergent situations that decrease the efficiency and profitability of your operation. In addition, it is an unexpected expense. Our goal is to better prevent emergency service calls to save you time and money. We ran some statistics to see how we are doing and what it’s costing you.
The results:
7.8% of our service calls are after-hours, which makes for a cost increase. Averaged over 188 calls, after-hour service calls cost $454.55 in labor – not including parts or travel.
Reason and Recommendation
When a part breaks, no matter what it is, you could see side effects like: increased milking time, decreased efficiency, money loss in employee time and service calls and potentially compromise animal health. If a part breaks on your washing system or you do not have the amount of chemicals needed, it could result in high PI counts, high SCC and poor milk quality.
We want to recommend parts that you can keep on hand to potentially save you from a service call or a run to your milking system parts dealer – saving you time, money and maximizing productivity.
1. Pulsators
2. Flapper valves/discharge calves
3. CIP candles
4. Claw bowls
5. Milk hose
6. Pulsation hose
7. Short air tubes
8. Liners/shells
We also recommend you keep enough supplies on hand like filters, chemicals, and teat dips. This can prevent the possibility of running out over the weekends or on holidays.
Is it expensive or cost effective?
Unlike the items we listed above, smaller/inexpensive parts, we will admit that keeping an extra milk pump motor on hand is expensive. What we do believe is that it will cost less than the consequences of downtime. Consider the money loss in time and service calls, as well as the result of being unable to milk for several hours. Stocking a milk pump motor and seal kit now could avoid the possibility of paying for an after-hours service call later. The same rule applies with Milk-Master motors for take-off parlors and stanchions. To benefit your operation, consider keeping your farm stocked with essential parts that make sense for your farm to reduce downtime and costs.