AMIAD - AUSTRALIA & ASIA PACIFIC NEWS - VOLUME 9 - APRIL 2017 December 2017 Vol. 10 | Page 7

Flash Back | Glen Goulburn Dairy
Doing more with less…how Glen Goulburn Dairy increased milk production
by treating their fresh water to drinking water.
In 2008 the Glen Goulburn property comprised of
about 1,800 hectares of mostly irrigated country,
1,250 milking cows and 30 staff to facilitate the
almost around-the-clock milking in a 50-stand
rotary.
Apparently, cattle are very sensitive to taste, and
were walking across the paddock to get to better
tasting water. The dairy approached Amiad to assist
with the property’s water treatment with the simple
objective in mind; improve the water quality so that
the cows will drink more water and produce more
milk, i.e. increase milk production by 20% with the
existing herd, or alternatively, produce the same
amount of milk with a smaller herd.
Goulburn Valley is Australia’s main dairy region,
and proud of it.
In summer, the dairy draws water from the
irrigation channel network, and in winter, from
their winter-storage dam, with varying water
qualities in these two different sources. Studies
show that the basic anti-quality constituents most
likely to be of concern, if in excessively high
concentrations, are; total dissolved solids (TDS),
sulphate (SO4), chlorine (Cl), iron (Fe), nitrate-
nitrogen (NO3-N) and manganese (Mn). It was
found that both iron and manganese were above
the levels deemed acceptable.
Fresh water in need of treatment.
"If high-iron drinking water is present an alternative
water source should be found, or a method to
remove the iron from water before consumption by
cattle and humans should be employed" *
Amiad offered a media based water treatment
plant to remove the fine colloidal matter and
reduce the turbidity, prior to oxidation and
filtration using DMI-65. Please see the table on
the next page for the results.
Amiad’s water treatment system.
7 | December  2017