Robot farms cubicle bedding routine

Hi all

I'm just interested to know how other robot farms bed up their cubicles? By hand? With a machine? Every day? Twice a day? Or every few days?

We are currently bedding up twice a day using a hand scraper to clean down the beds and applying sawdust/lime mix by hand. We have rope scrapers in so the passageways don't need scraped.

Really looking to make things quicker it's taking around 45 minutes to scrape down and bed 100 cubicles. The 45 minutes includes hand scraping a 3 bay shed off the side of the main cow shed which is slatted and the rope scrapers don't do.

Thoughts please?
 
Last edited:

Rossymons

Member
Location
Cornwall
I visit 4 robot farms and all of them have a machine of some sort to bed with whether it's a push along or something on the front of the handler or tractor.

All done once a day in the morning whether its sand, sawdust or this cosi-bed stuff. Having seen the cosi-bed stuff being chucked out I'm amazed the staff using it don't have a 1950s mining lung disease because of the dust.

2 have auto scrapers and 2 don't so they only scrape in the morning.
 

Scholsey

Member
Location
Herefordshire
Shut cows in the feed passage so they have to walk through footbath to get back to cubicles, brush with RS agri brush, bed with agdispenser once a week on water beds with sawdust, rake back fresh daily, lime with a vink dispenser 3-4 days after bedding to freshen it up a bit.
 

farmerste

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Preston
we bed twice a day with a ag maxi push along dispenser, takes about 10 mins to do 120 cubicles. Will potter round shed 3 or 4 times a day and hand scrape any muck off back of beds.
 
Once a month with 30 ton of sand chucked up the front of the beds with skid steer bucket.
Got a sand leveller off the side of skiddy that I use one a week for loosening and levelling the beds.
Twice Daily is just scrape off any soiled beds then before scraping out
 

pappuller

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
M6 Hard shoulder
Once a month with 30 ton of sand chucked up the front of the beds with skid steer bucket.
Got a sand leveller off the side of skiddy that I use one a week for loosening and levelling the beds.
Twice Daily is just scrape off any soiled beds then before scraping out
Take it you have to send the cows elsewhere when you scrape ?
 

upnortheast

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Northumberland
About every 2 weeks we open a bale of sawdust in the front of each pair of cubicles The single row last longer than 2 weeks.
Twice a day any crap on the back of the bed is cleaned off.
The cows shuffle the sawdust back
Only time we will pull sawdust back is if a bed has got excessivly mucky
Nice & simple

Result looks like this

20180627_132939.jpg
 
Last edited:

Stuart1

Member
Shut cows in the feed passage so they have to walk through footbath to get back to cubicles, brush with RS agri brush, bed with agdispenser once a week on water beds with sawdust, rake back fresh daily, lime with a vink dispenser 3-4 days after bedding to freshen it up a bit.
Could you use your RS Agri Brush without shutting cows into the feed passage or would it be too big and clumsy working around cows?
 

Scholsey

Member
Location
Herefordshire
Could you use your RS Agri Brush without shutting cows into the feed passage or would it be too big and clumsy working around cows?

would be ok, wouldn’t fancy a cow shooting back with the brush behind them but think they would get used it, just make sure your sat down when getting the price. But feel like they are cheap compared to a ag mini/maxi.
 

Stuart1

Member
would be ok, wouldn’t fancy a cow shooting back with the brush behind them but think they would get used it, just make sure your sat down when getting the price. But feel like they are cheap compared to a ag mini/maxi.
I enquired about one around 2 years ago, phoned up to ask the dimensions of one & was told they’d get back to me. Haven’t heard anything yet. Yours is the walk behind model? How many cubicles can you do with a hopper full?
 

Mark.MW

Member
Trade
Hi all

I'm just interested to know how other robot farms bed up their cubicles? By hand? With a machine? Every day? Twice a day? Or every few days?

We are currently bedding up twice a day using a hand scraper to clean down the beds and applying sawdust/lime mix by hand. We have rope scrapers in so the passageways don't need scraped.

Really looking to make things quicker it's taking around 45 minutes to scrape down and bed 100 cubicles. The 45 minutes includes hand scraping a 3 bay shed off the side of the main cow shed which is slatted and the rope scrapers don't do.

Thoughts please?

I get to see all sorts of different approaches. Most robot dairies I go to tend to bed down when they feed up. 90% of the cows are out of the cubicles eating then.

The Duo is proving to be extremely popular on robot dairies. Its fully electric so it's nice and quiet, so you can get amongst the cows without disturbing them too much.
Sweeping and dispensing bedding in one pass. On a clear run you can easily bed 30 cubicles in 30 seconds.

Luxton Web.jpg
 

Scholsey

Member
Location
Herefordshire
I get to see all sorts of different approaches. Most robot dairies I go to tend to bed down when they feed up. 90% of the cows are out of the cubicles eating then.

The Duo is proving to be extremely popular on robot dairies. Its fully electric so it's nice and quiet, so you can get amongst the cows without disturbing them too much.
Sweeping and dispensing bedding in one pass. On a clear run you can easily bed 30 cubicles in 30 seconds.

View attachment 1014205

How much is a duo?
 

Rossymons

Member
Location
Cornwall
I get to see all sorts of different approaches. Most robot dairies I go to tend to bed down when they feed up. 90% of the cows are out of the cubicles eating then.

The Duo is proving to be extremely popular on robot dairies. Its fully electric so it's nice and quiet, so you can get amongst the cows without disturbing them too much.
Sweeping and dispensing bedding in one pass. On a clear run you can easily bed 30 cubicles in 30 seconds.

View attachment 1014205

What about the dust? Fairly sure that will upset the cows and the operator.
 

Mark.MW

Member
Trade
What about the dust? Fairly sure that will upset the cows and the operator.
@Rossymons Hard to get away from dust using sawdust unfortunately. A mask for the operator and good ventilation for the cattle is recommended!
The dust is one of the reasons we went down the electric route, engines don't tend to like the dust either.

@Scholsey if you're interested, pm me your number and I'll give you a call tomorrow.
 
@Rossymons Hard to get away from dust using sawdust unfortunately. A mask for the operator and good ventilation for the cattle is recommended!
The dust is one of the reasons we went down the electric route, engines don't tend to like the dust either.

@Scholsey if you're interested, pm me your number and I'll give you a call tomorrow.
I presumed that you had stopped making them as a demo I asked for at the Gold cup failed to show ,even though it was in the area.I have rung AG 3 times with no response. Looks a good machine but if the back up is as good as the sales then no good
 

Mark.MW

Member
Trade
I presumed that you had stopped making them as a demo I asked for at the Gold cup failed to show ,even though it was in the area.I have rung AG 3 times with no response. Looks a good machine but if the back up is as good as the sales then no good
Rest assured you're still on my list to demo if you spoke to us at goldcup! I cam only apologise that you have had no response if you've called chasing. Unfortunately I haven't had the message. If you don't mind pm me your name + address and I'll give you a call tomorrow and set a date in stone.
 

Stuart1

Member
I get to see all sorts of different approaches. Most robot dairies I go to tend to bed down when they feed up. 90% of the cows are out of the cubicles eating then.

The Duo is proving to be extremely popular on robot dairies. Its fully electric so it's nice and quiet, so you can get amongst the cows without disturbing them too much.
Sweeping and dispensing bedding in one pass. On a clear run you can easily bed 30 cubicles in 30 seconds.

View attachment 1014205
You don’t happen to have one of these on demo in Northern Ireland?
 
I get to see all sorts of different approaches. Most robot dairies I go to tend to bed down when they feed up. 90% of the cows are out of the cubicles eating then.

The Duo is proving to be extremely popular on robot dairies. Its fully electric so it's nice and quiet, so you can get amongst the cows without disturbing them too much.
Sweeping and dispensing bedding in one pass. On a clear run you can easily bed 30 cubicles in 30 seconds.

View attachment 1014205
Could you also PM me a price. I also would be interested in a demo in northern Ireland
 

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