IT'S hard to imagine milking cows without rotary dairies these days.

Actually the thought of walking a 1000-head herd through a herringbone dairy would make even the keenest farmer cringe.

But back in 1968 some people in the industry thought Frank Phillips was going a bit crazy when he wanted to milk cows on a "merry-go-round".

"The general school of thought was that I was only mildly crazy," he said.

"The second was that I was mad."

The West Gippsland engineer-come-dairy farmer decided there had to be an easier and faster way to milk than using a walk-through system.

Studying the cows on his Nar Nar Goon property, Mr Phillips decided to combine the basic principles of both occupations.

"All production-line technologies generally depend upon a circular repeating procedure," he said.

"It doesn't have to be in a perfect circle, but it has to circulate.

"Since cows have four legs and can transport themselves, it is only a matter of assembling them in the logical fashion."

As is the case for all inventors, a variety of factors stood in his way, with the largest being the cows themselves.

Mr Phillips likens cows to humans in that they grow accustomed to routine.

In this case, "the rotary concept satisfied the psychology of cows", he said.

"The design was something that did not confuse cows," Mr Phillips said. "It was the perfect routine, as far as dairy cattle were concerned."

The rotary, or Minilactor as it was then named, provided all the basic requirements for milking cows, combined with an increased throughput.

With the operator working on the inside, viewing the cows at all times, Mr Phillips said problems due to cups falling off were easily avoided.

A report in The Weekly Times on May 1, 1968, triggered interest that led to the building of the first Minilactor.

The paper came out on a Wednesday and at 9am the following morning there was a knock at Mr Phillips' front door.

Bill Smits wanted to build one of the new machines on his property at Mardan, near Leongatha, in South Gippsland.

This first Minilactor had enough places for 13 cows, however, there were only ever 11 on the platform at once, with cows coming on and off.

It cut milking time. At the time herringbones milked 45 cows an hour; Mr Phillips said the new design had a throughput of 120 cows an hour "without even thinking about it".

"It gave me a degree of satisfaction," he said.

"My own concept functioned exactly how it was meant to, without any back-to-the-drawing-board moments."

The Industrial Design Council of Australia praised Mr Phillips' concept. In a letter on December 3, 1970, the council wrote: "This design is an excellent application of a careful and thoughtful work study and is a development of economic importance to a vital agricultural industry in need of economic assistance".

Mr Phillips entered the Minilactor in a competition for the council's Prince Philip Prize, and although he did not win, he received a letter of commendation.

Mr Phillips never used the machine at his own farm, opting to return to full-time engineering.

Peter Street was one dairy farmer who did use the new invention. It took him two years to build a Minilactor on his Wodonga dairy farm, and he began milking in it in 1972.

Milking 110 cows an hour, Mr Street said the modern invention made milking easier.

"I wouldn't like to go back and milk any other way . . . it made life so easy," he said.