With five decades of experience, McNamara Milking Systems provide farmers across Munster and beyond with unrivalled, labour-saving milking solutions. We dropped into their Mitchelstown, County Cork base and caught up with proprietor Willie McNamara to find out more about this exceptional family operation.
Dairy farmers want milking systems that will save them time and money. This is a simple fact that McNamara Milking Systems have built their business around and the Kilbehenny, Mitchelstown based main Fullwood Packo agent (covering all of Munster as well as parts of Kilkenny) has over the decades cemented an outstanding reputation as one of the finest purveyors of quality parlours and milking machines in the south.
Providing a complete range of services to a growing number of dairy farmers in the Greater Munster hinterland – sales, servicing, repairs and parts – McNamara Milking Systems will celebrate the 50th anniversary of their inception in 2017.
The fact they have been going strong for so long – through the many ups and downs that the dairy sector has encountered during that time – speaks for itself, really. Providing excellent products and services, Willie has always been quick to embrace the latest innovations and technology in dairy and to pass this expertise onto his customers.
“The business was started by my father, William McNamara, in 1967,” reveals Willie, who has been immersed in the family operation for 22 years. “We started with four- and six-unit machines and have gone all the way up to rotary systems and robotic systems.
“The dairy sector has come on a lot and we have moved in line with those developments, from hand-milking to where we are today. They were all hand-milked back when we started but things have changed a lot and the introduction of robotics has offered farmers a great way of saving on labour time.”
Fullwood’s Merlin robot is the new standard in efficient, ergonomic and ecological milk production. Representing the next generation of automatic milking systems, it has developed into a true class leader, making milking faster, more reliable and more efficient, while delivering real benefits to professional dairy farmers.
Willie has been supplying Fullwood systems since the early ‘noughties, including the latest state-of-the-art rotary milking parlours (which offer low running costs due to long life and low maintenance requirements as well as rapid milking of large groups) and cost-effective, rapidly-installed, low-maintenance, heavy-duty herringbone milking parlours – traditional parlours imbued with the latest Fullwood design and technology.
Meanwhile, Fullwood’s bespoke herd management software makes it possible to automate milking, feeding, weighing, separation and identification of health issues.
“Generally speaking, the 20+-unit herringbone parlour is the standard machine now and we go up as far as the 50-unit rotary,” the affable Cork man notes. “We’ve been doing robots for five years and they are becoming more and more popular. This is a specialist area and we are delighted to be able to offer these systems to farmers in the local area.
“We have twelve robots on our books at the moment, across Limerick, Waterford, Kilkenny and Cork and we also do maintenance and servicing on these. They are a great labour-saving system as they do everything and are essentially a one-man operation.”
Ultimately, everything is geared towards lessening the farmer’s workload, be it a new-build parlour, an expansion or an upgrade to add cluster removers etc. And Willie is not interested in quick sales … to the contrary, he makes himself available to help customers for the lifetime of the systems he has installed through a comprehensive 24/7 back-up service, with three service vans on the road ensuring that all systems are go. All of the time.
“It’s getting busier again,” he notes. “The downward pressure on milk prices started to have an impact but we’ve turned the corner and we expect to be busy for the remainder of 2017. It was a little quiet there for a while, to be honest, but we caught up on a few jobs that needed to be finished off and are in a strong position again now.”
The business generates gainful employment for three people full time and ongoing staff training ensures that professional Fullwood-approved services are provided in compliance with the highest standards expected by modern dairy farmers. Willie was in Holland for training during the summer, while one of his men spent a week in England upskilling.
“We are also trained all the time through Fullwood,” he reveals. “Part of their programme is to train their agents in all aspects of the latest systems. We know the products inside-out and we also have back-up and support from their men on the ground, so customers receive excellent levels of back-up support.”
This has been crucial in the ongoing success of the business. “I’d attribute our popularity to the back-up and service provided as well as the quality of the Fullwood product. They have really transformed things and are right at the cutting edge when it comes to milking systems. But, if you can’t back it up, it’s a waste of time.”
McNamara Milking Systems also supply water pumps and Dairypower automatic scrapers. Looking to the future, Willie says his goal is to keep expanding the business by providing the best possible service.
“It’s all about automation now,” he concludes. “One-man operations are the thing now and everyone is looking for labour-saving machinery. Herd sizes are getting bigger and farmers want to be as efficient as possible and save as much as they can on labour. Farmers are great at moving with the times and a lot of older farmers are embracing modern technology and have robots installed. Anything that lessens their workload makes sense.”
McNamara Milking Systems,
Shrove,
Kilbehenny,
Mitchelstown,
County Cork.
Tel: 025 85702
Mobile: 087 6477968
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 4 No 8, October 2016
