Rotary milking parlour

With growing herd size the efficiency of the herringbone parlour is put into question when the size goes beyond 20 points per side. Although there are some herringbone parlours with a total of more than 40 points, they number very few due to the length of the parlour.

The most efficient parlour type for the large herd is the Rotary Platform parlour. Rotary milking sheds consist of a turntable with about 12 to 100 individual stalls for cows around the outer edge. A "good" rotary will be operated with 24–32 (~48–50+) stalls by one (two) milkers. The turntable is turned by an electric-motor drive at a rate that one turn is the time for a cow to be milked completely. As an empty stall passes the entrance a cow steps on, facing the centre, and rotates with the turntable. The next cow moves into the next vacant stall and so on. The operator, or milker, cleans the teats, attaches the cups and does any other feeding or whatever husbanding operations that are necessary. Cows are milked as the platform rotates. The milker, or an automatic device, removes the milking machine cups and the cow backs out and leaves at an exit just before the entrance. The rotary system is capable of milking very large herds—over a thousand cows. It allows for only 2 operators to milk 250 cows per hour on a typical 60 point platform.