MENINGIE West dairyfarmer Brad Fischer was sick and tired of receiving phone calls of broken down dairies from his employees who were in the middle of milking.
His remedy to the problem was simple - out with the old, in with the new.
Stopping short of building an entirely new shed, Brad - who farms with his wife Karin - decided to gut the 50-unit rotary dairy built by his parents in 1991 and replace it with a new platform that had the same capacity, but with plenty of automation.
With the milk price from his processor Warrnambool Cheese & Butter looking positive, and his confidence up, Brad decided earlier this year it was time to go through with the upgrade.
"It's pretty hard to be a dairyfarmer without a dairy that works," he said.
"Almost 25 years of using lake water in the wash-out, and two years of non-operation, had done its damage on the dairy, so it was time for a change.
"I thought I could just replace the platform and be up for $100,000, or spend a fair bit more money automating it and making it close to a one-man operation to actually get something out of it."
So in the middle of February, the 'fun part' began, transporting 324 cows - or seven B-double loads - to Michael and Tania Vandenbrink's dairyfarm east of Meningie so they could be fed and milked during the five weeks the new system was being installed.
The Fischers' cows were milked by their own labour units twice a day, in the morning and afternoon, after the Vandenbrinks' cattle were milked.
As a form of payment, the Vandenbrinks - who also run a contracting and transport business - chopped feed at the Fischers' farm for both herds.
"The Vandenbrinks were very helpful throughout the whole process and we could not have done it without their support," Brad said.
The upgrade took exactly five weeks, and the cattle returned home about six weeks ago.
"The freight knocked the cows around a bit, but they are starting to settle back in now, and we're seeing production jump by about 500 litres a day," Brad said.
"We estimate it will take about three months for the cows to get back into full swing and get used to the new system."
Besides the platform, the Fischers' new dairy includes a variable speed vacuum pump, an auto-drafting system, automatic cup removers, milk meters, automatic feeders and automatic heat detection, most of which came from GEA Farm Technologies and was installed by Adelaide Dairy Automation.
"The vacuum pump is just excellent," Brad said.
"The platform might only be two-thirds full, so therefore the pump will run at two-thirds its capacity.
"The old oil vane pump just used to scream away in the background constantly, but the variable speed pump is a lot quieter."
Brad had used automatic heat detection in the old dairy and upgraded it when installing the new equipment.
"We have been using pedometers and leg tags for over 10 years and as a result of that we would only have to pregnancy-test five per cent of our cows," he said.
"The installation of milk meters means we don't have to herd test any more because they monitor blood presence and udder conductivity."
But a standout feature in the new dairy is the clusters from ADF Milking - installed by Agri Dairies - which automatically dip cows' teats as they are removed and then disinfect and clean themselves before moving on to the next cow.
As a result of some of the new technology, Brad plans to increase milking herd numbers to between 500 and 550 by the middle of next year. He also envisages milk quality will increase.
But Brad is well aware that the technology comes down to how the harvested information is interpreted.
"Technology gives you an indication of what is happening, but none of it makes up for bad management," he said.
* Full report in Stock Journal, April 24, 2014 issue.