Background
A progressive sheep and goat dairy in the Netherlands, milking 400 dairy sheep and 200 goats under a high-welfare, high-efficiency model. The farm supplies premium cheese to regional markets and is subject to strict EU animal welfare and food safety standards. Automation and labor efficiency are key priorities.
Products Featured
Parallel milking parlor, portable ultrasound scanner, heated water troughs
The Challenge
The farm was upgrading from a manual bucket-milking system to a parlour setup but had limited barn width for a traditional layout. They needed a compact milking solution that could handle both sheep and goats. Additionally, their reproduction program relied on visual heat detection, leading to missed cycles and extended lambing intervals. Winter water freezing was also a recurring issue in the unheated barn.
Our Solution
A custom-configured parallel milking parlor was designed to fit the narrow barn footprint, with interchangeable milking clusters for both sheep and goats. The system included individual milk meters for production tracking. A portable veterinary ultrasound scanner was provided for early pregnancy detection at 25 days post-breeding in sheep, allowing rapid rebreeding of open ewes. Custom heated water troughs were installed in each pen to ensure consistent winter water intake.
The Result
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Milking time for the full herd was reduced from a full day to under 3 hours per session.
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Pregnancy scanning reduced the average lambing interval, increasing annual lamb output.
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Winter milk production held steady with warm water access, avoiding the seasonal dips previously seen.
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The stainless steel parlour equipment passed all EU hygiene inspections on first review.