Feeding Equipment, Silos and Automatic Feeding
Diet feeders, out of parlour feeding, automatic systems and Collinson silos — designed around your shed, installed by our engineers and serviced afterwards.
Feed Is the Biggest Bill on the Farm
Everything else on this site saves you labour. The feeding system decides what the labour is buying.
A ration mixed unevenly is two different rations by the time it reaches the barrier — the cows at one end get the fines and the cows at the other get the long fibre, and the group average hides both. Feed pushed out of reach an hour after feeding is feed the shy cow never sees. Concentrate fed to the parlour average is under-feeding the cow that is milking and over-feeding the one that is not.
None of that shows up as a breakdown. It shows up in the bulk tank and in the feed bill, which is why it is worth engineering rather than tolerating.
From the Silo to the Barrier
We quote it, we install it, and the same engineers come back to service it. Not a delivery with a manual in the box.
Collinson silos
Feed and meal storage, including the County range. Bulk delivery needs a silo the lorry can actually get to, and standing it is as much of the job as supplying it.
Trioliet diet feeders
Solomix mixer feeders, plus self-loading and self-propelled machines. A mixer that produces a consistent ration end to end is the whole point — the rest is capacity.
Trioliet automatic feeding
The Triomatic range, including feeding robots and feed kitchens. Fresh feed presented several times a day without anybody starting a tractor.
Out of parlour feeding
Fullwood feeding stations, so concentrate follows the individual cow's yield rather than the group average. As the leading Fullwood dealer in Scotland we fit the milking plant as well, so the two are one conversation.
Conveyors and dispensers
Centreless conveyors and dispensers to move meal from the silo to where it is needed, which is usually the part nobody budgets for.
Silage cutters
Clean block removal from the pit. A tidy face keeps silage where you put it and out of the air.
Calf and lamb milk feeding is its own machine and its own page — see automatic calf and lamb feeders. Feed pushing is covered under JOZ.
We Design the System, Not the Machine
Trioliet build the mixer and Collinson build the silo. What we do is work out what goes where in the building you actually have.
Feeding systems fail on geometry far more often than on machinery. A passage too narrow for the feeder you chose. A silo standing where the bulk lorry cannot reach it in February. An automatic system routed past a door that has to stay shut. A conveyor run long enough to separate the ration it was bought to mix.
None of those is a fault with the equipment, and every one of them is somebody’s expensive winter. So somebody comes and measures the shed before anybody quotes a machine for it.
If We Installed It, We Look After It
Feeding equipment is covered by the same twenty-four hour, seven day call-out as the milking plant.
An automatic feeding system that stops is a shed full of stock waiting, and a diet feeder out of action in January is a tractor and a bucket for however long it takes. Eight engineers work from Springkerse in Stirling, with a second service centre at Ayr, and they carry a stock of spare parts. To ask about any of it, or to book a visit, there are two doors:
Ring Stirling
01786 474 481. The engineering office at Springkerse, Stirling. Ask about a machine, book a site visit, or order a part.
Email service
service@mccaskie.co.uk. For anything that can wait for a reply: a quote, a service booking, a question about something we fitted.
Once it is in, it is covered by the same twenty-four hour, seven day call-out as everything else we install. How that works out of hours, and who answers, is on service and call-out.
Feeding Equipment Questions
Do you install feeding equipment or just supply it?
We install it. Feeding equipment is quoted on the farm, fitted by our own engineers and serviced by the same people afterwards. That is not true of everything on this site — handling ironwork and weighing equipment are supplied and delivered rather than fitted — so it is worth being clear about which is which.
Who supplies Collinson silos in Scotland?
McCaskie. We quote, supply and install Collinson silos, including the County range, from our engineering base at Springkerse in Stirling. Siting matters as much as capacity: a silo the bulk lorry cannot reach in February is a silo you fill by hand.
What size of diet feeder do I need?
It depends on herd size, how many groups you are feeding, how often you want to mix and what your passages and door heights will take. The last of those catches more farms than the first. We would rather measure the building than quote off a cow number.
What is out of parlour feeding for?
Feeding concentrate to the individual cow rather than to the group average. A station identifies the cow and gives her what her yield justifies, in small amounts through the day rather than in two lots in the parlour. As the leading Fullwood dealer in Scotland we fit the milking side as well, so feeding and milking are one conversation rather than two suppliers blaming each other.
Can an automatic feeding system work in an older shed?
Often, and more often than people assume. The limits are usually geometry rather than technology — passage widths, door heights, where the feed is stored and whether a route exists that does not cross something that has to stay shut. That is a site visit, and it is worth having before you conclude it will not work.
Do you do calf and lamb milk feeders as well?
Yes, and they have their own page because they are a different machine and a different job — see automatic calf and lamb feeders. Urban Alma Pro for calves and Alma Pro L for lambs and kids, also a fitted install.
What happens if the feeder breaks down?
Ring Stirling on 01786 474 481. Out of hours the call goes to the technician on call — one of our own engineers. Feeding equipment we installed is covered by the same twenty-four hour, seven day call-out as the milking plant.
Do you supply feed as well as the equipment?
Feed and meal come through the country stores and your field sales rep rather than through Engineering — the Downland range and the brands you already ask for, at Ayr, Kinross, Lanark and Stirling. The silo and the system are ours to install and service.