For many years the Balfour family have been dairying in the beautiful Willow Grove region of West Gippsland.

After years of long hours milking in a 26 unit rotary, the decision was made to establish a new milk harvesting centre including a Westfalia 50 unit Rotary and an 18,000 litre Milk Cooling Tank set the scene for their new enterprise.

Andrew and Carolyn took on the planning and development of the project with assistance from their local WestfaliaSurge dealer John Van de Burgt of Westfalia Warragul and by May 2002 it was completed.  In a short time milking was reduced to 1.5 hours for the 480 cows.

Andrew, knowing that he had a strict budget to work with, restricted his wish list to a basic milking plant with Automatic washing, at the same time maintaining his vision for the future recognising the importance of milk metering, animal identification, accurate breeding for large herds and the ongoing costs of labour.

To this end he decided on the Yarroweyah platform including the bail designed with bracketing to suit the Westfalia milk metering system and the tri-clover milk entries which are suitable for either automatic cluster removers or milk meters in the future.

Andrew and Carolyn will milk up to 500 cows off 120 Ha this season whilst the dry cows are kept on a 200 Ha turnout block nearby.  The farm is entirely dry-land farming and a minimum concentrate ration is feed in the dairy, depending on price and availability. They also raise up to 140 calves each year as replacements.

The enterprise is operated by the family and one permanent staff member and for harvest time and other peak periods casual labour is utilised.

By purchasing this system Andrew has given himself an economic opportunity to add automation modules to the dairy without costly replacement of prime cost items. 

If you would like a short movie presentation on CD of the Balfour dairy give your local WestfaliaSurge dealer a call.