increase font size
GEA claims its new automatic teat spraying system helps reduce somatic cell count and improve teat condition.
Automatic teat spraying is no longer just about labour savings, says dairy automation company GEA.
The company claims its new on-platform teat sprayer, the iSPRAY4, offers unrivalled teat care.
Already, the system has proven to reduce somatic cell count (SCC) and improve teat condition, it says.
Taranaki dairy farmer Andrew Pritchard says the iSPRAY4 is a gamechanger. Eighteen months ago he installed a 50-bail iFlow Rotary Platform, a one-person operation milking 460 cows.
Initially, he was working with the old model 2-nozzel iPUD automatic teat sprayers.
"I was never happy with coverage (of the teats), the leg spreading ability or hygiene - it was hard to keep clean.
"The new 4-nozzle (iSPRAY4) has been an exceptionally good change.
"The design makes it easy to cup, with the cups hanging better. The leg spreader caters for big and small cows, and there's a bigger range of coverage with the 4 nozzles.
"Our cell count has dropped since the day it was installed and teat condition is the best it has ever been."
The farm's SCC season average has gone from 150,000 to 90,000.
According to GEA Product Manager Ben Morris, the new iSPRAY4 sees the iPUD redesigned to target full barrel coverage.
"Installing the iSPRAY4 will see farmers taking a big step forward in terms of teat-spraying accuracy and better efficiency in the milking process," says Morris.
Designed with 8 nozzles, the iSPRAY4 offers 4 post-spray nozzles which apply teat spray using crossfire technology for full coverage.
Although not yet adopted in New Zealand, there are also 4 pre-spray teat nozzles in each unit. The leg separating capacity results in great cluster alignment.
A deep groove through the centre ensures the cluster and milk tubes hang freely for an unobstructed milking routine for all cows, while the units are much easier to clean-down.
GEA says combining this system with its FIL Intelliblend creates further labour savings and better consistency, automating the mixing of teat spray concentrates and delivering programmed ratios to the spray units.
Pritchard says with Intelliblend added, we don’t have to do anything.
“From concentrate to spraying, it’s all taken care of. It provides consistency and reliability,” he says.
GEA says the iSPRAY4 (and Intelliblend) is a simple to install ‘plugand- play’ solution for any rotary platform.
Because the system has proven to perform best with FIL teat spray products, GEA is offering to extend the standard 1-year warranty to a 3-year warranty for any farmers who purchase the units with a 3-year FIL teat spray supply commitment.
Milton dairy farmer Chris Wills says he began using probiotics in spring 2023 to address somatic cell count (SCC) grades when cows transitioned from their winter barn to lush spring pasture.
Treat your farm boundary like a border. This was one of the messages delivered to farmers at a recent Beef + Lamb New Zealand Protect Your Patch workshop in Lincoln.
Feeding infected milk is high risk for spreading diseases such as M. bovis.
To ensure optimal growth, health, and wellbeing of calves, feeding strategies should be considered carefully.
Another milestone has been reached in the fight against Mycoplasma bovis with the compensation assistance service being wound up after helping more than 1300 farmers.
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.
OPINION: Should cows in NZ be microchipped?
OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the…
