300 cows and no outside labour

[Sid]

@Clive has posted about a farm he visited in the US

i visited one in the USA - a purpose built unit it ran pretty autonomously, 300 cows and just the one guy looking after it all between growing crops on his 1000ac holding with just his wife and sin helping out at harvest and seeding time

It had one man on the cows (the farm owner) , not even full time

his wife and son had full time jobs off farm, they took a week holiday to help with harvesting on the 1000ac arable - his son was a truck mechanic and his wife worked in admin at the local elevator. He also ran a farm shop (honestly box) for dairy products he made

he seemed to have plenty time to show groups of farmers around and have a long lunch with us

seemed like a lot less work / staff than the 150 cow dairy farm i grew up on ! although I’m sure it’s still very highly skilled

Even with full automation , I would imagine there would be a constant stream of service engineers and breakdown call outs 24/7.

Can 1 man physically look after 300 cows and calves alone?

 

[Optimus]

@Clive has posted about a farm he visited in the US





Even with full automation , I would imagine there would be a constant stream of service engineers and breakdown call outs 24/7.

Can 1 man physically look after 300 cows and calves alone?

If the setup was good .I should imagine they could.

 

[Rossymons]

Depends on his output. Low yielding OAD would be a doddle

 

[Sid]

Depends on his output. Low yielding OAD would be a doddle

Housed on robots

 

[celtis man]

The debt for it must make them nervous

 

[Clive]

If the setup was good .I should imagine they could.

it was purpose built, system and yard on a green field site, big investment I imagine ! was very slick, all the gates etc were computer controlled to segregate etc automatically if required , robot scrapers and cleaners. feed optimum feed was automatically calculated and adjusted by algorithms (not A! yet ) and dispensed individually. lots of sensors monitoring various aspects of animal health and environment and making adjustments constantly

Dairy is not something I know much about but it was very impressive ......... almost made me think we could do it at home !

 

[farmerm]

it was purpose built, system and yard on a green field site, big investment I imagine ! was very slick, all the gates etc were computer controlled to segregate etc automatically if required , robot scrapers and cleaners. feed optimum feed was automatically calculated and adjusted by algorithms (not A! yet ) and dispensed individually. lots of sensors monitoring various aspects of animal health and environment and making adjustments constantly

Dairy is not something I know much about but it was very impressive ......... almost made me think we could do it at home !

Where is the line between algorithms and AI?

 

[Martyn]

it was purpose built, system and yard on a green field site, big investment I imagine ! was very slick, all the gates etc were computer controlled to segregate etc automatically if required , robot scrapers and cleaners. feed optimum feed was automatically calculated and adjusted by algorithms (not A! yet ) and dispensed individually. lots of sensors monitoring various aspects of animal health and environment and making adjustments constantly

Dairy is not something I know much about but it was very impressive ......... almost made me think we could do it at home !

Give it a go!

 

[Boysground]

Would be really interesting to see, there are times I would like no staff. There is a robot feed system not far from me I would like to go and see, I do keep dropping hints.

Don’t think it would work here though

Bg

 

[Clive]

Where is the line between algorithms and AI?

the intelligence bit basically

an algorithm is just a set of instructions, a logic flow chart, it only can do what it has been instructed and programmed to do - it is dumb and that is technology and computing we are all now used to living with

AI is more like a human, it learns, reasons and evolves i, it can even be creative it has a "self" and as its not limited like a human brain so can do all that ridiculously fast at levels we can not even imagine

 

[Clive]

Give it a go!

I can think of a million other ways to invest the same £'s in something less risky !


so no thanks !

 

[Clive]

The debt for it must make them nervous

I don't think it was cheap !

 

[Boysground]

I can think of a million other ways to invest the same £'s in something less risky !


so no thanks !

TFF? I suspect the stress levels are similar to dairy farming

Bg

 

[celtis man]

I don't think it was cheap !

It does make you wonder if it is worth the effort

 

[Optimus]

it was purpose built, system and yard on a green field site, big investment I imagine ! was very slick, all the gates etc were computer controlled to segregate etc automatically if required , robot scrapers and cleaners. feed optimum feed was automatically calculated and adjusted by algorithms (not A! yet ) and dispensed individually. lots of sensors monitoring various aspects of animal health and environment and making adjustments constantly

Dairy is not something I know much about but it was very impressive ......... almost made me think we could do it at home !

Sounds a fair setup, not cheap though!

 

[DairyNerd]

I would need a full time person in the days as the debt/depreciation would keep me awake all night!

 

[Sid]

It does make you wonder if it is worth the effort

After 20 years you have a pile of worn out , out of date scrap?

 

[farmerm]

After 20 years you have a pile of worn out , out of date scrap?

My mate tells me when you borrow heavily enough you can sleep sound and leave the worrying to the bank manager

 

[BRB John]

After 20 years you have a pile of worn out , out of date scrap?

Simple after 20 years he's got everything paid off so you just start again but it'll be cheaper cause I assume the buildings and most of the infrastructure will still be good surely. So the next 20 years would be cheaper for his son I guess...
I suspect most of the gizmos will probably get updated before then though.

As long as he's on top of his figures I don't see why it wouldn't be possible...

 

[delilah]

Never been so not sure how true this is, but I was once told that the US model is to build a dairy unit on a greenfield site on the edge of town, work it to the max, sell the site for development as the urban area expanded out, do it again, there will always be greenfield to move out to.
I guess if you've got that to borrow against then anythings possible.