Set up by Liam Collins in September 2012, Limerick-based Collins Agri Dairy Solutions supplies high quality dairy farm equipment for milking parlours, milk cooling and storage, dairy hygiene and dairy feed.
In a relatively short space of time the ever-burgeoning company has established a firm foothold in the Irish market and their rapid growth has been underpinned by their association with renowned brands such as ATL Agri, Mueller and Cotswold Dairy.
The most recent addition to the Collins Agri stable is Alanya Animal Health Monitoring whose 100% Irish product ‘HerdInsights’ is the most advanced heat detection and health analysis solution available in the market today.
‘HerdInsights’ enables farmers to improve efficiencies and monitor the health of their dairy herd 24/7, from any location.
In partnership with Cotswold Dairy, Collins Agri offer a wide range of hygiene products to the dairy industry. Their Automatic Cluster Flush System, is now available for virtually all types of milking parlour.
In addition the Cotswold product range also includes stainless steel water heaters, heat recovery units, teatsprayers, udder washers, auto and manual cluster flush systems, auto handwashers and chemical dispensers, along with numerous ancillary items.
ATL Agricultural Technology Ltd, meanwhile, is a well-established award winning family run business specialising in the research design and manufacturing of milking parlour equipment.
Their products include parlours, in-parlour and out-of-parlour feeding systems, parlour controls, automatic identification systems, automatic drafting and milk meters.
And if its milk cooling systems you are looking for, look no further than Collins Agri and Mueller, the milk cooling systems specialists, who build the industry’s highest quality milk cooling and storage systems.
With equipment designed for both large and small operations, Mueller’s range ensure maintaining milk quality while improving profits with lower operating costs.
Collins Agri Dairy Solutions also stock the AUCTUS product range. AUCTUS is at the forefront of innovation in animal nutrition and is currently supplying Collins Agri with the full product range in County Limerick.
Champion, the flagship calf milk replacer has seen extremely strong sales through Collins Agri over the past 12 months. Feedback from customers has been extremely positive with very good growth rates and extremely good calf health being two points that Liam Collins has heard from his customers.
To see the full AUCTUS product range, please log onto www.auctus.ie
“We’re fortunate to have acquired such prestigious brands,” outlined Liam who runs the company in conjunction with his wife Hannah who is also a director.
“You pay for what you get and quality is paramount to us. We’ve been extremely busy as a result since we started out and now with the milk quota gone we expect this year to be even better because there is confidence back in the market.
“The back-up service we are able to offer our clients is phenomenal because all the agencies we have are very focussed companies and they share our commitment to customer service. I can pick up the phone and ring the companies direct, there’s no middle man so that saves our clients a lot time and they get the best advice straight from the relative service engineers.
“A big advantage we have over our competitors is that we can supply the complete modular system or individual parts. Our clients pay for what they can afford and add to their systems as they go along.”
You don’t have to take ours or Liam’s word for it, here’s what some of his clients have to say about their dealings with Collins Agri …
David Keane, Galway – Herringbone Parlour from ATL Agricultural Technology
Collins Agri have provided a number of successful solutions within the Irish market including David Keane, based in Loughrea, Co. Galway.
This year David is building his milking herd to 110 cows. Looking to install a 16 unit parlour, David wanted a solution which provided good value for money and importantly as a one man operation, had a reliable backup service.
David selected a 16 unit Herringbone Parlour from ATL. The unit included AutoID which enables individual rations to be delivered and individual milk yields to be stored automatically.
“My decision really came down to the quality of the product, the quality of the ATL Herringbone Milking parlour is absolutely excellent” said David.
“We had no problems with the installation, we had great support from ATL, CollinsAgri and John Lynn of Milktech throughout the transition, and have had an excellent backup service since the unit was installed.
“The quality of the machine is superb and, we would certainly consider it very good value for money – well worth the investment.”
Ger Buckley, Cork – Milking Parlour from ATL Agricultural Technology
Ger Buckley has a dairy farm based in Coachford, Co. Cork with a dairy herd expanding to 180 cows this year.
Ger was looking upgrade his existing parlour and for him the priority was to find a system which was both efficient and easy to use.
Ger selected a system which included milk meters, Auto-ID feed to yield and a Pegasus drafting system all from ATL Agricultural Technology.
“My initial reason for selecting the system was its ease of use, looking at other products on the market I felt that ATL had an excellent high quality system which is very straightforward to use,” said Ger.
“I also really liked working with ATL an efficient, family run business I felt that both themselves and Collins Agri took the time to get to know get to know my farm and my requirements and I have been extremely pleased with the backup service and support I have received to date.
“The real benefit though has been the field to yield system, put simply rations are provided to the cows that need them, a cow on grass full time doing 20 litres gets 1kg and for every 3 litres more than that she will get an extra kg up to a maximum of 7 kg’s.
“That has really helped the high yielder and saved ration on the low yielding cows, so we are feeding less ration overall.
“Already I can see how cows are holding their condition much better as a result of this system; it definitely exceeds my initial expectations.”
Angus McNamara, Limerick – Cluster Flush System from Cotswold
Angus McNamara is a dairy farmer based in Croom, Co. Limerick.
Angus first contacted CollinsAgri as he was having trouble with his cell count. It was discovered that the cause of the cell count problem was Staphylococcus Aureus.
To resolve the issue Angus installed a Cluster Flush System from Cotswold and within 2 weeks he was delighted that his cell count was back under 200,000.
“We received excellent results within 2 weeks of installing the system, certainly worth the investment, any issues or concerns we may have had we were able to pick up the phone to CollinsAgri and receive the support we needed, delighted with the results to date.”
Liam Houlihan Limerick – HerdInsights Animal Health Monitoring from Alanya
Six months ago, Liam Houlihan from Bruree, Co. Limerick installed HerdInisghts, animal health monitoring product from Alanya.
HerdInsights is a revolutionary cloud based health monitor for dairy cows, which improves the efficiency of farm breeding programs and reduces health care costs through early illness detection.
Using a multi-metric analysis, if a cow is identified as being in heat, cystic, anoestrus or unwell, an alert is automatically sent to farm management via text and the HerdInsights App.
The fact that the system was cloud based, was a real benefit to Liam: “I wanted a system that was easy to manage, that once I placed on my farm I didn’t have to worry about upgrades, and HerdInsights certainly met these requirements.”
Within two months of installing the product, based on the health benefits alone Liam could already see the return on his investment. Liam had felt that his breeding program had been going quite well, but good breeding programs consume a huge amount of time.
“Since we installed the system I feel our time is being spent much more effectively, we have been able to focus and invest our time in other areas of the farm; things are certainly running a lot more efficiently for us, we can definitely say that it has been worth the investment and that’s before we even hit a breeding season.”
So as you can see, the testimonials from Collins Agri Dairy Solutions customers speak volume for the quality of service provided by the Limerick based firm. Their professionalism, dedication to customer service and range of solutions means they are the perfect partner for all those in the dairy sector.
Collins Agri Dairy Solutions
Ashfort
Ballybrown
Clarina
Co Limerick
Tel: 087 6932211
Email: [email protected]
www.collinsagri.com
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 3 No 4, May 2015
