Features of Olympia Dairy Barn Systems

Designed to Work Together - Vet Room, Office & Cattle Loading:

Vet Treating Area: The Vet area can incorporate the work area between the catch lane and the palpation lane and treated pens, allowing the use of a cart to hold supplies and a laptop computer for keeping herd health records. The herdsmans' office adjacent to the veterinary work area can be equipped with cabinets, a sink, and a refrigerator for storage of veterinary supplies and drugs. A freezer for colostrum can be located here or in a milk utility room located next to the small milking parlor. A heated treatment room can be provided to be used for on-farm surgeries during cold weather. The treatment pen can be used to isolate an individual or to hold a cow for observation.

Cow Sorting area: Promotes smooth cow movement with maximum safety for handlers and cows.

Calving Area / Calving Pens: Our design team can assist with head locks, catch gates, and calf holding pens.

Cattle Loading Area: Concrete areas can be designed to your specific needs, whether it may be semi loading or trailer loading.

Holding Area The milking parlor design and capacity will determine the size of the holding area where cows wait to enter the milking parlor. Cows are milked twice a day on most farms, but a 10% increase in milk production may be obtained by milking the cows three times a day. It is necessary to factor in the number of milkings a day, the climate, and production level expected to determine the holding area size required.

Feed Storage Area: Feed storage and feeding systems account for a considerable number of buildings and structures on dairy farms. Olympia Dairy Farm Systems can design and supply all your feed and commodity storage needs. Dry hay may be stored in a separate hay barn. Silage may be stored in bunkers silos, concrete stave silos, or oxygen limiting silos, such as HarvestoreT. Commodity feeds are typically stored in a commodity barn that has several bays, one for each commodity, and commodity sheds are usually constructed to allow delivery of one semi-trailer of the commodity in each bay.

Manure Handling: There are three types of manure handling systems typically used for freestall barns: Manual scraping, Flush systems, and Automatic alley scrapers. Olympia Dairy Barn Systems will help you understand what you need and design the right solution for your freestall barn. Our manure handling systems designs make for easy manure handling - our manure gutter barn to manure system works even in winter. Our Dairy Facility designs may also include the manure gutter and sand settling pit, manure pumps for flushing gutters and holding area with interchangeable pumps, a concrete apron to let solids dry out before hauling, liquid manure pumped to the Slurry store and the manure lagoon.

Milking parlors: The milking parlor is the heart of the dairy, central to the profitability and productivity of the dairy facility. The size and type of milking parlor is one of the most important decisions made in the design of a new dairy facility.

Olympia specializes in the design of parlor systems that maximize throughput, cow comfort and proper cow positioning, with easy to install and easily serviceable any size milking equipment to accommodate any design, including ultra efficient designs which integrate the milking center with office and equipment areas. Also integral to our dairy facility designs are a subway for milking equipment, milk testing area and stainless steel refrigerator, milk wash vat & cooling system, and milk loading area.

Herringbone milking parlor design: The herringbone milking parlor design is one of the most popular types of parlors. In this type of design, the cows enter and stand next to each other, facing away from the milking operator's pit at an angle. The herringbone parlors are located on the end of a rectangular holding area allowing cows to enter single file directly into either side of the parlor. On completion of milking, rapid exit design allows all cows to exit at once past the holding area, expediting the milking process.

Parallel milking parlor design: Parallel milking parlors are similar to herringbone milking parlors in design except that in the parallel milking parlor design cows stand perpendicular to the milking operator pit rather than at an angle, and the cows are milked from the rear between the cow's hind legs rather than from the side. The cow platform is wider than in a herringbone parlor to accommodate the length of the cow. The advantage of the parallel parlor design is that the cows stand closer together so the walking distance for the milkers is shorter than in a herringbone parlor design. The disadvantage is that cows must be milked from behind, so the tail will often be in the way, and it may be a long reach to the cow's teats for some milkers.

Rotary or Carousel Milking Parlor Design: Rotary parlors are gaining in popularity for large dairy farms with herds in excess of 1,000 cows. With the rotary milking parlor design, the platform on which the cows stand moves around like a carousel while the cleaners and milkers stand in one location. The rotary carousel milking parlor design is advantageous because of its high efficiency. Since cow movement functions are largely automated, one operator can run the entire milking operation from the same position while the cows come by quickly, and enter and exit at a constant rate with no break between cows.

Single 5 milking parlor for Fresh and Treated Cows: Olympia Dairy Farm Facility Systems incorporate a separate milking area for cows that produce unmarketable milk, such as fresh and treated cows.