75 years of milking technology from Westfalia

Westfalia Landtechnik has been producing milking tech-nology for 75 years. The bucket milking plant was created in 1926, now the company provides plants for farms with just 5 cows but also to customers with well in excess of 15,000 cows. In addition there are milking plants for sheep, goats, buffalos and mares. Westfalia has long since become a global player as one of the top suppliers in the milk technology sector which offers the entire product range and a dense sales and service network throughout the world. 1,600 employees work in more than 50 countries for the Westfalia Landtechnik group which belongs to the GEA group Bochum which is a subgroup of mg technolo-gies ag, Frankfurt. 

The Habig industrialist’s family sold their majority shareholding in Westfalia Separator to GEA AG, Bochum in 1994. In 1996 the company’s milking technology activities were merged as the independent company Westfalia Landtechnik GmbH under the umbrella of the GEA group. Since this time the company has consistently extended the core business sectors of milking technology, refrigeration technology and dairy supplies (cleaning and animal hygiene produces, replacement parts, accessories, and a comprehensive consultancy service). Since the mid 80s the sales more than quadru-pled from approx. Euro 75 million to a present level of € 330 million. The acquisitions of the North American manufacturer SURGE and the French milk refrigeration spe-cialist Huggonet at the end of the 90s served to strategically extend their compe-tence in the commercial sized installation technology, dairy supplies and milk refrig-eration technology sectors.  

Westfalia Separator AG has constructed centrifuges since 1893, for the milk process-ing industry for example. In 1926 Werner Habig, who was the managing director for more than 40 years, gave the go-ahead for the development and production of milking technology. 

During this 75 year success story Westfalia constantly set milestones by means of advanced new developments. The focus of the company’s new milking technology vision is still upon high milker and animal comfort, a high level of milk quality and the highest level of profitability of the systems which are delivered. 

Westfalia provides milk producers throughout the world with the appropriate syst-em solution for every type of individual requirement. The range of system solutions extends from the bucket milking plant to the various different milking parlour syst-ems and right through to the rotary parlours and fully automated milking systems (milking robots).

long version:

People who buy milk and milk products from the corner shop or in the supermarket generally have no idea how much effort and high-tech is required to extract raw milk of the highest quality. The technology and products of Westfalia Landtechnik, the milking technology manufacturer ensure there is less grind and more economic efficiency. The company launched its first milking machine onto the market 75 years ago and is now one of the two top manufacturers in the world. Westfalia has been developing and producing components and system solutions for the milk production sector since 1926. The once family owned machine construction company from Westphalia has become an innovator within the branch and a service-oriented global player in the space of 75 years. 

The first milking machine to be produced in Westphalia was a simple bucket milking plant. Now Westfalia delivers system solutions which are tailor-made to the needs of family-owned business and industrial scale commercial farms throughout the world. For cows, sheep, goats, mares and buffalos. 

The company is active in three business sectors: milking technology equipment, refrig-eration technology systems and dairy supplies. The new German term “Dairy Supplies” stands for the entire product range for the milking plant cleaning and animal hygiene as well as spare parts and accessories. This product range is supplemented by the Pro-Millk service which is a new and, up to now, unique consultancy and service in Europe to ensure better milk quality with lower operating costs. 

1,600 employees support a dense sales and service network in more than 50 countries throughout the world. Hardly any other companies within this sector can lay claim to such a high level of customer orientation with such a wide range of products and services. 

Family run for many years – the force behind the company 
The Habig industrialist’s family was the majority shareholder of the Westfalia Separator AG until they sold their sold their shares to GEA AG, Bochum in 1994. In 1996 the company’s milking technology activities were ultimately merged as the independent company Westfalia Landtechnik GmbH under the umbrella of the GEA group. In the 90s the company consistently consolidated their core business sectors in a lot of growth markets. Strategic acquisitions also helped to almost triple the overall group turn-over. In 2001 the turnover amounted to approximately €330 million.

The nucleus of the company which is rich in tradition is the Rahmesohl & Schmidt AG from which the Westfalia Separator AG emerged in 1941. They were already constructing centrifuges in 1893, for the milk processing industry, for example. 

Werner Habig who was the managing director for more than 40 years and was in-spired by the new impressions he had gained from the United States entered the milk technology business in 1926 with a tried and tested and animal friendly milk-ing system. The year of  1926 is thus the year in which Westfalia Landtechnik was born. A success story that was to extend over a period of decades began. During the course of this success story the company constantly presented new develop-ments: quality, reliability, simple operation and high performances were at the forefront for farms and milking personnel before and after the second world war. Step by step mechanical milking made the milking work easier and ensured that more and more animals could be maintained within a herd. The company set, and still does set, high quality standards for each technical improvement and advance-ment and places the emphasis upon the animal-friendly functionality of the systems. 

Successful through innovation 
More than seven decades of milking technology from Westfalia have considerably changed the milking process. Numerous new developments have relieved the milk-ing personnel of arduous manual work and have made the milking process more comfortable for the animal. The business appeared to be promising due to the fact that, particularly in the war years and the immediate post-war years, there was an acute lack of milkers. An automatic milking system? People could not envisage this prospect even in their wildest dreams. Now they are already reality in a few farms. Milking robots are milking machines which are genuinely fully automated and which are able to carry out all the hand movements of the milker. 

The progression from manual work to mechanical milking
Mechanical milking processes have been developed by some companies since the mid 19th century. However, these first attempts could not convince the dairy cattle farmers. The apparatuses were not sufficiently operationally dependable and diffi-cult to operate.  In addition they were still far removed from a gentle and udder-friendly method of working. The milkers also did not trust the new technology: they were scared of losing their jobs. It should not be forgotten that these special-ists had been indispensable up till then. The spread of the first milking machines was also sluggish due to the fact that the majority of the farms did not have elec-tricity which was necessary for the modern appliances.  

Then as now nothing ran without electricity: milking systems do not just require elec-tricity for the generation of a vacuum but also for the process control engineering and the control technology of modern milking and milk management systems as are now used almost everywhere. 

Electronics and high-tech permit an animal-friendly, efficient and economic milk production process – irrespective of whether a herd consists of 5 or 15,000 cows. Westfalia is one of the trendsetters within the branch and this has been demonstrated time and again by innovations from Oelde and the ten development and production locations throughout the world. 

Early technology transfer
In 1926 Werner Habig returned to Oelde from a trip to the United States armed with new technological findings. Within a short space of time the first piston pulsator and the first teat cluster with useable milking beakers for a milking pail were developed. The milking vacuum for the first bucket milking plants produced piston and roots vacuum pumps. Westfalia constantly improved this process and set milestones by means of new components. 

The most modern plants still work in accordance with the basic principle of “milk removal whilst subjected to a vacuum”, automatic milking systems, which are better known as “milking robots”, included. They also need a vacuum pump, a pulsation system and teat cup cluster just like the first milking plants. 

In the second world war the lack of milkers enhanced the spread of milking technology. More mechanisation was required. In the 50s the technical progress which was being implemented also accelerated the development of milking technology. At the same time a higher level of performance and the careful treatment of the animals was demanded from the milking machine. 

The vacuum controlled sleeve pulsator which was developed by Westfalia markedly improved the milking work. Modern pulsators now have electronically controlled solenoid valves such as those that work in Westfalia’s StimoPuls systems. They auto-matically and individually stimulate the cows and thus appropriately ensure that they ready for milking. In the 60s the pipeline milking plant additionally eased the work-load: the milking was no longer carried using a bucket but instead using a stationary pipe which led to a milk storage tank. A novelty of the future ensuring that West-falia also constructed the first milk cooler troughs in 1964.

As the start of the 60s control valves were developed so that the milking vacuum also remained constant in the event of various different loads. The first vacuum control valves were spring-loaded to begin with – as of 1967 the follow-up series were lever controlled. Milking machine and churn sink units were superfluous by 1969 when Westfalia developed cleaning machines which clean the milk pipes in a closed cycle and improve the level of milk plant hygiene.  The first milking parlours represented the third generation of milking technology. They were already built prior to the sec-ond world war. However, they were equipped with milk pails – stationary milk pipes were introduced later.

Westfalia supported the transition from bound indoor stock keeping to pen barn sta-bling by means of the development of animal and user-friendly milking parlours in the 70s and 80s. Milking parlours such as the Europa herring bone milking parlour or the AutoTandem from Westfalia became the standard for western European milk produc-ers. Milking parlour systems such as the side-by-side concept now offer the highest level of milking convenience and throughput yields. 

Despite the fact that the rotary milking parlours had been well known for a long time new technical options helped this type of milking parlour to make its breakthrough. Westfalia launched a new generation by means of the first Rotomelk rotary milking parlour. From 1990 onwards Westfalia succeeded as one of the first companies in trans-ferring all the components of the rigid milking parlour to the rotary system. Westfalia has subsequently become the market leader in the rotary milking parlour sector thanks to its AutoRotor series.  

The seventies:
It was possible to constantly increase the mechanisation of milk production processes and sectors, electronics paved the way for this development. Larger dairy cattle herds demanded perfected milking plants, milking parlour systems and higher yields. By way of an example Westfalia developed vacuum pumps with a pneumatic output of up to 2,800 litres per minute. By way of comparison vacuum pump output of 400 li-tres per minute was generally sufficient in the 60s, now the average level of output in Germany is 1,200 litres per minute.  

In 1970 the first electronically controlled pulsator and the first milk quantity measurement systems from the laboratories were launched. The first automatic teat cup cluster removal system come onto the market in 1975 and considerably relieved the milker’s workload. Electronic milking control devices and monitoring systems have subsequently made the milking work easier and ensure that the cows are milked in an animal-friendly and gentle manner.  

Sensitive sensory components have been employed since the beginning of the 80s which record all the milking and milk yield parameters electronically and make it possible to further process the data which has been captured within a milking man-agement system. The Metatron electronic milking management, the StimoPuls stimulation pulsator, the automatic teat cup cluster removal, Finilactor the auto-matic stripping device and BackFlush, the system for the automatic intermediate disinfection of the teat cup clusters are examples from a whole series of developments which stand for the innovativeness of Westfalia within the branch. This also applies to the legendary BioMilker: by means of this procedure whereby air is periodically let into the milk bucket this new teat cup cluster ensures even gentler milking.

The Classic S teat cup cluster with milking form tubes which are made of silicon is now one of the most high performance teat cup clusters on the market and most effective in milking technology terms. 

The flood of animal and herd data, of the milking process, of the animal health and yield behaviour of the individual cow are now recorded and processed by PC-based herd management systems. They do not just serve to control the performance and evaluation of the data but also actively monitor the milking process, the feeding and the animal’s behaviour. The computer moved into the cow-shed in the form of the first feed computer at the end of the 70s. Process control computers such as the Codatron system assumed responsibility for the automatic allocation of concentrated feed and the monitoring of the animals. Codatron represented a new mile-stone, the standard for the whole industry. Today’s milk producer monitors and administers his/her herds with the current DairyPlan successor generation. And this is mainly just by means of a mouse click. DairyPlan 5 represents user-friendly, profes-sional herd management using the PC for milking technology experts throughout the world. 

In 1999 Westfalia launched its fifth milking technology generation for the future: automatic milking! Leonardo the automatic milking system integrates all the sections in a dairy cattle shed within a continuous process. This is where Westfalia particularly underlines its responsibility towards its customers: as distinct from many other competitors the Oelde based company is not interested in quickly selling its units, instead it is initially concerned with clarifying questions relating to automatic milking which are still critical. The company is constantly working on the difficult questions relating to animal transportation, economic efficiency, yield and milking hygiene in order to able to offer the milk producer with a system which is up to the job. 

Westfalia Landtechnik therefore attaches great importance to a high level of care and responsibility in the milking robot segment. This also applies to the visions relating to milking in the future: all Westfalia’s future developments concentrate upon the cow’s and the milker’s convenience, economic efficiency and the safeguarding of the quality of the raw milk. An approach which distinguishes Westfalia and charac-terises the company’s success over a period of decades.