After a period of previewing the system at North American tradeshows, DeLaval announced the official launch of the DeLaval Parlor milking system P500 – the next evolution of parallel parlors.
Its unique design represents a new approach to moving cows calmly, quickly and efficiently through the milking process. It is the dairy industry’s only parallel parlor with three cow-flow control options and no sequence gates in the floor.
“The DeLaval Parlor P500 has been designed to do more on a smaller footprint, making it an ideal choice for both news builds and retrofits,” Gavin Strang, DeLaval Market Development Manager, Capital Equipment, said.
Highland Dairy of Glade Spring, Va. is a third-generation dairy farm milking 550 cows. When owner Rena Johnson spoke to her DeLaval dealer, Tri-City Dairy Equipment, about securing the sustainable, profitable growth of her family’s farm, she embraced the possibility of updating their operation with a DeLaval Parlor P500. As the new system’s first global reference farm, Highland Dairy started milking cows in its double-16 P500 in January 2019. Johnson is satisfied with the parlor’s better throughput, greater milk production and improved comfort for cows and employees.
“Before, we were using the parlor about 19 hours a day milking a modified 2x,” Johnson said of their old double-12 herringbone parlor. “Now, we’re milking (all cows) 3x, about 15 hours a day in the (new) parlor. It’s just so much better for us for throughput and efficiency, and we’ve gained an additional five pounds of milk. The cows really love the barn, and that tickles me to see them in there.”
The DeLaval P500 features all of the significant functionalities of the existing DeLaval parlor assortment, plus a newly developed synchronized milking process with these patented technologies:
- DeLaval SynchroArc™ is more than an open-bottom neck rail with no obstructions. Its design promotes free-cow flow for optimum throughput, offers better indexing of mixed herds, and accommodates a 30 percent smaller footprint.* Ceiling heights can be as low as 96 inches.
- DeLaval SynchroSweep™ features independently controlled, suspended, non-overlapping sequence gates, which also lift up during milking to minimize stress on cows and components. This design and process creates a quieter environment that can speed up cow-exit cycle times by 56 percent.*
- DeLaval SynchroControl™ puts the operation of the milking system at the fingertips of the dairy producer. This feature makes it possible to configure multiple indexing management styles, contributing to its safe, comfortable and efficient operation.
DeLaval InService™ All-Inclusive - InService™ All-Inclusive (ISAI) for DeLaval Parlor P500 is a customer service program designed to enhance the reliability and performance of the milking system. ISAI provides service, consumables, advisory and everything in between on a contract basis so the customer knows his or her costs up front. DeLaval InService™ All-Inclusive provides farmers with time to focus on the business of dairy farming with the peace of mind that the system is running at peak performance.
The Next Evolution of Parallel Parlors
The P500 signifies a new approach in parallel parlors for DeLaval. In North America, this new milking technology will supersede the company’s previous parallel parlor models (Champion™, Cascade™ and Endurance™).
“The DeLaval P500 simplifies our parallel parlor offering while continuing to deliver the quality, reliability and longevity our milking systems are known for,” Strang said. “It has the potential to increase dairy producers’ profitability, reduce their costs and help them be more efficient with labor.”
*Data collected on test farms and pilot farms. Data compared to DeLaval Champion. Results may vary depending on farm conditions.