Service and Call-Out
Milking does not wait, so neither do we. Eight engineers, two service centres, and a phone that is answered twenty-four hours a day.
Twenty-Four Hours, Seven Days, 365 Days
Our customers never stop. They work day and night all year round, and so do we.
A robot that stops at five in the morning is not a support ticket, it is cows standing waiting. Ring your nearest service centre and, outside business hours, the call is forwarded to the technician on call — one of our own engineers, not an answering service taking a message for the morning.
Stirling — all areas
01786 474 481. The engineering base at Springkerse, covering the whole of Scotland.
Ayr — Ayrshire
01292 262 576. The second service centre, for farms in Ayrshire and the south west.
By email
service@mccaskie.co.uk for anything that is not urgent — a service booking, a part, a question about a reading.
Looked At Before It Goes Wrong
Call-out is what happens when something breaks. Routine service is what makes that rarer, and it is the half of the job that pays for itself quietly.
It is also where the relationship starts rather than ends. We are on the farm at the planning stage, before anything is ordered, and the same engineers are still coming back to it years after the installation is signed off.
Planned visits
Booked in rather than remembered. The wearing parts get looked at on a schedule instead of at the point they cost you a milking.
Rubberware and consumables
Liners, tubing and the rest replaced on time. It is the least interesting part of a milking plant and the one that quietly decides cell counts.
Tested to BS ISO 6690:2007
Milking plant is mechanically tested against the international standard for milking machine installations — vacuum, pulsation and wash measured against what the plant should be doing, with the readings written down so you can see them move.
Software and updates
Fullwood updates reach your farm through McCaskie rather than through a third party, so the engineer who applies them is the one who knows your installation.
Remote monitoring
Alerts can reach us as well as you, so a fault can be recognised before it has cost you a milking.
Parts on the shelf
A stock of spare parts held at the service centres, because a part that has to be ordered is a night without milking.
None of it is glamorous, and that is rather the point: a plant that is looked at on a schedule needs the emergency number far less often than one that is not.
If We Installed It, We Look After It
Service and call-out covers every machine we put on your farm, not only the milking plant.
Fullwood Merlin robots
Every Merlin on a Scottish farm, whatever the model and whoever put it in. More than ten years with Fullwood and more than 90 robots installed, so the engineer who arrives has almost certainly seen your fault before.
Pearson parlours
Conventional parlours, from routine servicing to a plant that needs bringing back to where it should be.
Cooling and storage
Tanks, silos and cooling plant. Milk that will not cool is the same emergency as cows that cannot be milked, and it gets the same answer.
Elta ventilation fans
Fans, tube systems and controls. A shed that stops moving air costs you in pneumonia long before anything breaks outright.
JOZ scrapers and feed pushers
Slurry robots and feed pushers, kept running on the floors they were set up for.
Hoofcount footbaths
Automatic footbaths and the dosing that makes them worth having, serviced like any other machine on the farm.
Feeding equipment, handling ironwork and anything else we have fitted is covered on the same basis. The one thing we do not take on is another make of milking robot or parlour that we did not install — we would rather tell you that now than send somebody to learn on your farm at four in the morning.
We Look After What Is Already Out There
A newer machine arriving changes nothing about how yours is serviced.
The robots in this shed are an earlier Merlin. McCaskie put them in and McCaskie still service them, from the same base, with the same parts and the same out-of-hours number as the ones going in this year.
Being on an older model moves nobody down the list. The eight engineers commissioning a new robot this season are the same eight who answer when an older one stops.
Questions We Are Asked Most
Who do I ring if the robot stops at night?
Stirling on 01786 474 481 for all areas, or Ayr on 01292 262 576 for Ayrshire. Outside business hours the call is forwarded to the technician on call. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Do you service milking robots you did not install?
Fullwood machines, yes — every Merlin on a Scottish farm, whatever the model and whoever put it in. Other makes of robot, no, and we would rather say that now than learn on your farm.
Do you service fans, scrapers and footbaths as well as milking plant?
Yes. If McCaskie installed it, McCaskie services it — Elta ventilation fans, JOZ scrapers and feed pushers, Hoofcount footbaths, cooling and storage, feeding equipment and handling ironwork, on the same call-out numbers as the milking plant.
Is the milking plant tested to a standard?
Yes. Milking installations are mechanically tested against BS ISO 6690:2007, the international standard for milking machine installations, and the readings are written down so you can see them move between visits.
Do you service conventional parlours as well as robots?
Yes. Pearson parlours are the other milking system our engineers know inside out, and plenty of the farms we look after have never had a robot.
What does routine servicing actually include?
Planned visits rather than remembered ones: wearing parts and rubberware replaced on time, vacuum, pulsation and wash checked against what the plant should be doing, readings written down, and software updates applied by the engineer who knows your installation.
Do you hold spare parts?
Yes, a stock is held at the service centres. A part that has to be ordered is a night without milking, which is the whole reason for holding them.
How many engineers are there?
Eight, working from Springkerse in Stirling and from Ayr, across the whole of Scotland.
Ring the Service Centre
Stirling, all areas — 01786 474 481
Ayr, Ayrshire — 01292 262 576
service@mccaskie.co.uk
4 Munro Road, Springkerse Industrial Estate, Stirling FK7 7UU · Monday–Friday 8am–5pm, and on call outside those hours, 365 days a year.