First circular crowd gate in Ontario is "slicker than slick"

System means milker doesn't have to leave parlour

CARDINAL — While the rotary milking parlour goes round and round ever so slowly, so does the adjacent crowd gate at this Eastern Ontario dairy farm. The crowd gate pivots from the centre of the holding area and is programmed to slowly move in a continuous circle to urge the cows along and entice a few into the empty stalls on the rotary parlour.

"The entrance lane to the parlour is always full — that’s the goal," said Bart Geleynse of Dundas Agri-Systems, who installed the gate.

The computer-controlled crowd gate at Wynands farm is the first in eastern Canada, said Geleynse, who said he saw a few operating in Alberta and overseas. "This is not very common in North America but it is common in Europe. This system is meant for the milker not to have to leave the parlour. You don’t have to leave the pit and get those last seven or eight reluctant cows. Every herd has reluctant cows."

He added that the crowd gate is an extra expense, but taking into account the entire cost of a new barn and rotary parlour, the extra cost is insignificant. "Cost would not be the reason not to do this," he said.

The crowd gate manages to continue in a circle even though it meets with a stationary gate after one full turn. The horizontal rotating gate has extending vertical bars like teeth on a comb that hang down and pass between the teeth-like bars attached to the stationary horizontal gate that runs close to floor.

"It’s slicker than slick," said Geleynse.