# Rotary milking parlor



## fivemoremiles (Jan 19, 2010)

I have been playing with a rotary milking parlor plan. Basically it is a floating platform sitting on/in a 10 foot stock tank of water. Making the platform turn is simple. Not a lot of power is needed to turn the platform. In fact a human may be able to move the platform by hand. The milking buckets would turn with the platform. The only thing that worries me to how to make the floating platform stable enough. Any ideas on how to make the platform flotation stable?


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Very interesting.


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

I've seen the rotary milking parlors and they are way cool. But I've never seen a floating one.


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

My husband says increase the ballast on the platform so that it holds steady for the weight you are going to have on the platform. Once it gets heavy enough, it will be hard to tip.


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## Goat_in_Himmel (Jun 24, 2013)

Um...begging enlightenment for the benighted...what might be the purpose of a rotary milking platform?


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## fivemoremiles (Jan 19, 2010)

Speed and flexibility 
The rotory platform I am building should milk 14 goats every 8 minutes. Or nearly a hundred an hour.
The rotory milking system can expand with my operation without the need to build a larger parlor.


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## Goat_in_Himmel (Jun 24, 2013)

Oh, okay...I googled pictures, which is what I should have done before asking. So it's like a merry-go-round at a playground, with each goat getting on, and getting hooked up to the built-on milking hookup. The platform rotates to the next bay, the next doe gets on, ditto ditto--and the milk is piped to the tank at the hub. Even the pipes turn with the platform, and they run to the tank, the lid of which must also spin, or the pipes would get all twisted. Or the tank itself spins with everything else. The first doe completes her circuit, is unhooked, sent on her way, the platform turns to the next bay and the second doe is unhooked, etc....brilliant. As long as they don't get seasick on the device, I see how that would be a real time saver when milking on a grander scale. And I suppose if the power went off with these rotary parlours that accommodate forty or fifty cows that I see pictured, it would still be a faster setup than linear, where you'd waste a lot of steps going back to the first cow, when you could just complete a circuit and come back to where you'd started.

Me and my one milker, not thinking BIG. How many goats do you have/intend to wind up with?


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## fivemoremiles (Jan 19, 2010)

I have 35 goats and 14 sheep in my parlor. 
My wife has Ms and has a hard time milking in our linear parlor. With a rotory parlor she can help milk without the fear of falling and with less fatigue.


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