Another robot thread.

Nh6050

Member
Sorry another robot thread.

We are seriously contemplating one.

Just looking for advice. We milk 65 cows averaging 6500 litres. Just a one man band unit and job off farm.
We are feeding just silage and all cake through outbof parlour feeders.

Would we benefit from a robot in the Long term.
It won’t be a lely due to price and hear back up from centre at longtown is shocking.

We were thinking De Laval or fullwood ??

And advice on these I like the milk first yard set up

Also would I need the oopf if our robot in as these would do that job too
 

Scholsey

Member
Location
Herefordshire
How far off is your job off farm? Robots will be fine for concs fed for current yields but would struggle if they are your only means of feedings concs if want to feed more than 9kg/head. Would only need 2 OOPF feed stations.
 
Back up and track record is everything.
Buy a machine with neither and it will be worthless as soon as paid for.
I would be more worried about Lely than Lely Longtown as they are an arrogant bunch but they are market leaders for a reason.
 

pappuller

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
M6 Hard shoulder
How far off is your job off farm? Robots will be fine for concs fed for current yields but would struggle if they are your only means of feedings concs if want to feed more than 9kg/head. Would only need 2 OOPF feed stations.
We average 9kg cake in the bots, upto 16kg max, planning on cutting blend down to under 2kg, av 10500 l but I wouldnt want to be producing more than 5500 litres off 3 bots at that level of feeding or the wheels will start to fall off
 

Nh6050

Member
I’m self employed so can be back on farm in max 40 mins.
We average 9kg cake in the bots, upto 16kg max, planning on cutting blend down to under 2kg, av 10500 l but I wouldnt want to be producing more than 5500 litres off 3 bots at that level of feeding or the wheels will start to fall off


How you mean max litres off bots @pappuller
 

upnortheast

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Northumberland
I’m self employed so can be back on farm in max 40 mins.
That would work.

We feed silage/ whole crop wheat + 2kg barley / blend.up passage Everything else through robot. max 12 kg - Av 6kg Concs use works out at 0.28 kgs / litre

Last milk recording summary showed this
Projected 305 Day Yields
(for animals in milk between 80 and 305 days)
7071 Heifers
9924 2nd Calvers
11492 3rd Calvers
10089 Later Lactations
9050 Whole Herd
Not bad for little Red & White cows ? We reckon the robots have put at least 1500 litres on at modest feed rates
 

pappuller

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
M6 Hard shoulder
I’m self employed so can be back on farm in max 40 mins.



How you mean max litres off bots @pappuller
A robot will only harvest a maximum amount of milk/day and when feeding a larger amount of corn in the robot and less at the barrier you will generally get more milkings/cow/day which can lead to less free time or wriggle room. We will max at around 55 cows or 1800 litres(1850kg) per robot and no more.
 

Sid

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South Molton
Sorry another robot thread.

We are seriously contemplating one.

Just looking for advice. We milk 65 cows averaging 6500 litres. Just a one man band unit and job off farm.
We are feeding just silage and all cake through outbof parlour feeders.

Would we benefit from a robot in the Long term.
It won’t be a lely due to price and hear back up from centre at longtown is shocking.

We were thinking De Laval or fullwood ??

And advice on these I like the milk first yard set up

Also would I need the oopf if our robot in as these would do that job too
Grazing at all?
 

nonemouse

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North yorks
Had our red robot since 2010, currently got 70 cows, grazing summer, winter is just blocks of silage down a trough (no mixer wagon) no out OOPFs, do struggle to get enough cake into the cows but we are usually averaging over 8500 ltrs per cow per year. Not had to much in problems with lely longtown backup but we do have engineers 5 mins down the road (not that I’ve seen them since early Dec)
Talk to plenty of people that have been going a few years before you decide what to buy, the main 3 all produce capable robots, but it’s support and back up that makes the system work. All 3 have had issues with this in different locations and times.
 

Nh6050

Member
Graze just in the day at the moment and would probably go full time housed once went bot way. No feeder wagon here and never will be 1 coming had that t shirt already.
 

Nh6050

Member
Would a decent second hand lely a3 be a safe enough gamble if has decent service contact as it’s a damn sight cheaper than a new 1.
 

pappuller

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
M6 Hard shoulder
Would a decent second hand lely a3 be a safe enough gamble if has decent service contact as it’s a damn sight cheaper than a new 1.
Depends if its decent or been neglected in its previous life, a few 2nd hand bots gone in locally in the last few years and needed alot of money throwing at them to get them tip top.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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