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GrowSave – Dairy
GrowSave is a knowledge exchange programme helping farmers and growers save energy.
Watch our webinar: Reducing dairy electricity costs
Electricity typically represents 4% of a dairy farm’s variable costs, so understanding and reducing consumption can lead to significant savings.
Making informed business decisions in the field of energy technology will help improve both profitability and environmental sustainability on your farm.
This webinar explores the principles of good energy efficiency on Rhual Dairy, an AHDB Strategic Dairy Farm from 2019 to 2021.
In this session, you’ll learn:
- Practical methods to improve energy efficiency
- How to optimise milk cooling and water heating
- The role of variable speed drives
- How to assess payback times for energy-efficient technologies
- Options for renewable generation and energy storage
Improving energy efficiency on dairy farms
As part of our GrowSave scheme, we’ve collaborated with NFU Energy to help agricultural businesses access the latest thinking and established techniques about efficiency, with a focus on energy.
Our resources cover:
- Renewable energy opportunities
- Electricity use and management
- Energy-intensive equipment such as milk cooling, water heating and vacuum pumping
Read more about improving energy efficiency
Dairy lighting technology review
The dairy lighting technology review outlines the benefits of improving lighting in your sheds.
Key takeaways:
- Adequate lighting levels can be achieved without expensive or complex systems. Use a phone app to measure the light levels in your sheds
- Housing dry cows with 8 hours of light and 16 hours of darkness can increase milk yield in the following lactation
- Cattle are not receptive to red light (dichromatic). Red lighting at night allows observation without disturbing dark periods
Table 1. Recommended light levels (lux)
| Area | Light level (lux) |
| Collecting yard, parlour and cattle handling areas | 300 |
| Cow sheds | 200 |
| Night | <10 |
Lighting case studies
The review also included three case studies from dairy farmers who changed their lighting systems to improve milk yield, health, fertility and working conditions.
Before: Jersey herd producing 22 litres a day. Sheds lit by two high-pressure sodium lights.
Change: Added festoon lighting along stalls and feed passage using a timer switch (£600).
After: Cows produced an additional 2 litres per day.
Before: One shed lit by four sodium lights on manual switches.
Change: High bay LED lights – on for 16 hours, off for 4 hours – with a gradual dim and brighten to simulate sunrise and sunset.
After: Improved work environment, better welfare and fertility outcomes.
Before: Building new housing and parlour.
Change: Installed 24-hour LED lighting (£6,000).
After: Fertility improved, but cannot be attributed to lighting alone. Would use a similar lighting system again.
For the full review, contact Sophie Allery, Knowledge Transfer (Dairy) – sophie.allery@ahdb.org.uk
Further information
For further information, please contact David Ball (Senior Manager – Environments and Buildings) – david.ball@ahdb.org.uk or NFU Energy on info@nfuenergy.co.uk