Hi. My name is Iain Hulley and since 1985
I have dairy farmed on Hopewell Farm, near Nottingham Road in KwaZulu-Natal,
South Africa.
My formula for successful
milk production - "No hungry or thirsty cows here!" You can
see our cows do not go hungry on the pastures we provide them on
Hopewell. But providing for their thirst is more difficult. What dairy
farmer has not got a 'scrum' of high production cows around the water
trough? When the flow fails to meet the demand of the thirsty animals,
they jostle for position under the paltry flow from the ball valve.
Conventional valves are modifications of the domestic model as found
in household cisterns. This has a small orifice to handle the pressure
involved. Not only does this restrict the flow into the trough but
foreign material or pieces of grass often make the situation worse by
clogging this small hole. With the water supply thus limited the
jostling becomes worse, stressing these animals which need a tranquil
environment to produce milk.
Another problem with conventional valves
is the material they are made of - brass. Now brass is a beautiful
gleaming metal, very suitable for the ornaments around the homestead,
but it is not very strong. How many farmers have had cattle damage the
device and even break it off? And suffered the consequence of losing
thousands of gallons of precious water before the damage is
discovered?
So I worked on a design to counter these
problems. This design allows a flow 25 times greater than the one it
replaced, and works with the line pressure to control
the flow, and not against it. In the event of a
breakage, the pressure tends to cut off the flow. The valve is
manufactured from steel, which, unlike brass, withstands the pushing
and shoving of the herd without breaking! And so was born the
Kuluvalve, which has replaced the 'domestic-type' ball valves on my
farm as well as my neighbors' farms.
Finally, why is it called the 'Kuluvalve'?
Well in this part of the country the language spoken by the majority
of the inhabitants is Zulu. And Kulu is derived from the
Zulu word for Big and Strong. As that describes how we ensure 'no
thirsty cows here,' it seemed a good name!
I & G Distributors USA
milk production - "No hungry or thirsty cows here!" You can
see our cows do not go hungry on the pastures we provide them on
Hopewell. But providing for their thirst is more difficult. What dairy
farmer has not got a 'scrum' of high production cows around the water
trough? When the flow fails to meet the demand of the thirsty animals,
they jostle for position under the paltry flow from the ball valve.
Conventional valves are modifications of the domestic model as found
in household cisterns. This has a small orifice to handle the pressure
involved. Not only does this restrict the flow into the trough but
foreign material or pieces of grass often make the situation worse by
clogging this small hole. With the water supply thus limited the
jostling becomes worse, stressing these animals which need a tranquil
environment to produce milk.
from the
Zulu word for Big and Strong. As that describes how we ensure 'no
thirsty cows here,' it seemed a good name!