IEE - GERONIMO - Dairy Energy Portal

TOP 20 TIPS

Top 20 Tips
- Switch from incandescent lighting to T-8 fluorescent lighting in your barns
- Use dimmers and motion sensors on your barn lights
- Match tractor size to the size of implements
- Ensure equipment tyres are properly inflated
- Ensure that equipment and machinery are suitably maintained following the manufacturer’s recommended maintenance schedule
- Make sure that the windows and doors in your farm buildings are tight fitting and well sealed
- Insulate farm building outside walls with greater than R20 and ceilings with greater than R30
- Consider the use of solar energy around the farmstead or on-farm (for powering water pumps and electric fences)
- Switch to a milk pre-cooler system to cool the milk before it enters the bulk milk tank
- Check that the timer settings for the solenoid valve on the water system of plate pre-coolers allow enough time for the milk to be cooled, but not so long as to cause water waste
- Avoid excessive use of borehole water during parlour wash down to minimize disposal costs for dirty water
- Use variable speed drives (VSD) on vacuum and milk pumps on your milking equipment
- Look into adjusting lights in the dairy barn to increase milk production
- Install a heat reclaimer
- Investigate availability of water recycling equipment
- Insulate hot water lines and refrigeration lines going to the milk vat
- Use a timer on your water heater so the water is the right temperature only when you need it
- Maximize natural ventilation in the barn
- Clean ventilation fans
- Look into doing an on-farm energy audit