Robotic milking

[upnortheast]

PM sent

 

[dannewhouse]

PM sent

I'm intrigued as well/nosy but every little helps. I already tramline all my reseeds which is half way?

 

[Bald Rick]

Upnortheast, if you pm me I’m more than happy to do so.

Why are you asking for a PM when you have made a challenging statement in an open forum?

Just asking & not be provocative but I am interested in teasing out more info from your statement though

 

[Seasider]

Why are you asking for a PM when you have made a challenging statement in an open forum?

Just asking & not be provocative but I am interested in teasing out more info from your statement though

Previous experience has taught me not to.

 

[Bald Rick]

Previous experience has taught me not to.

So why make the statement at all then? I can see no reason why forced or guided systems would "maximise profit from forage" that free access systems wouldn't as to my mind cows entering guided systems are "trapped" and some may be in there for some time ergo they cannot feed during that time.
I would need clarity to see where you are coming from

 

[Seasider]

So why make the statement at all then? I can see no reason why forced or guided systems would "maximise profit from forage" that free access systems wouldn't as to my mind cows entering guided systems are "trapped" and some may be in there for some time ergo they cannot feed during that time.
I would need clarity to see where you are coming from

I can understand your comments and on poorly designed/run setups they are undoubtably true. I have not and will never claim a guided system to be the best at anything but it is in my opinion worth a closer look for some. As you are aware some robot manufacturers do not support the concept which creates an immediate issue when discussed on open forum and I’m not prepared to subject myself to that type of “sledging” again from people who’s opinions don’t come from first hand experience of a well designed/run setup. I apologise for and regret my original post.

 

[Mr Big]

We nearly bought Lely but decided to go for a guided system to improve milk from forage. The guided system is fine when it's working. When it stops working prepare for some vets bills. Unfortunately the robots we purchased leach away (and much more) any gains there may be from improved forage utilisation on maintenance costs. The performance of the robots is also pitiful compared to others i know with Lely robots. They don't spend an hour or more at each end of the day manually attaching either. I'd rather suffer the arrogance of a Lely rep than have my livelihood ruined.....be warned!!!

 

[pappuller]

We nearly bought Lely but decided to go for a guided system to improve milk from forage. The guided system is fine when it's working. When it stops working prepare for some vets bills. Unfortunately the robots we purchased leach away (and much more) any gains there may be from improved forage utilisation on maintenance costs. The performance of the robots is also pitiful compared to others i know with Lely robots. They don't spend an hour or more at each end of the day manually attaching either. I'd rather suffer the arrogance of a Lely rep than have my livelihood ruined.....be warned!!!

Do you care to share the breed of robot ?
I cant get my head round the need to manually attach, we have 3 a4s in 3 years now and I can honestly say I have never had the thought of needing to manually attach, I'm sure a % of lely reps are arrogant as with many reps of many companys around the world, but they have a product that has evolved into what it is today which I consider to be the most reliable robot on the market.

 

[pappuller]

They are green!
Well we are told that if we had Lelys we would have to cull a number of cows. Since the robots were installed our replacement rate has gone up 8%. The manager at the dealership has told my brother recently we require to be more ruthless to reduce the manuals. This would require culling around another 10 %. Before long there would only be more manuals again. Manuals are needed to maintain any reasonable level of output of the robots. It's rediculous! They have an answer to everything.
We used to have a percentage of the herd having produced over 100 tonnes of milk still milking. We don't have anything like it any more. Either our management has deteriorated or the machines are worthless shite!

M1one ?

 

[upnortheast]

Well we are told that if we had Lelys we would have to cull a number of cows

Red ones going here for 9 years now.
At start up we had one heifer 1 month off drying with crossed back tits. We dryed her of early & when she calved again no problem
Since then at most 2 cows that the robot struggled with
I think the robots can cope with a wider range of udders than a conventional claw. We never get a sqweaker now on wide front teats
That must be spelt wrong ?

 

[yin ewe]

Do you care to share the breed of robot ?
I cant get my head round the need to manually attach, we have 3 a4s in 3 years now and I can honestly say I have never had the thought of needing to manually attach, I'm sure a % of lely reps are arrogant as with many reps of many companys around the world, but they have a product that has evolved into what it is today which I consider to be the most reliable robot on the market.

Manual attach is the one thing that I'd add on our Lely. Not that I want to be spending time at each end of the day putting on clusters, that defeats the purpose of robots. I would like to be able to bring in a heifer let the laser scan a couple of times then attach the clusters by hand before she starts to fidget or get agitated. Use it for a couple of times until she settles down. I suppose that the argument against is that you might be tempted to use it too often. It's not a major issue but it would be nice to have the option.

 

[pappuller]

Manual attach is the one thing that I'd add on our Lely. Not that I want to be spending time at each end of the day putting on clusters, that defeats the purpose of robots. I would like to be able to bring in a heifer let the laser scan a couple of times then attach the clusters by hand before she starts to fidget or get agitated. Use it for a couple of times until she settles down. I suppose that the argument against is that you might be tempted to use it too often. It's not a major issue but it would be nice to have the option.

Does anyone spray the teats with water before attaching a fresh calved animal ?

 

[upnortheast]

Meet Songstress
Just finished 10th lact. 117.8 tonnes. av 4.55 bf 3.56 protein
Heifer lact in the parlour then robots, which she loves, Generally goes 5 x day

 

[Grassman247]

Getting close to deciding whether to fit robots which we will need 5 of, but for the same money we could fit a 50 point rotary, milk for an hour either end of the day and it would last 3 times longer then the robots. Are my thoughts justified? The amount of posts on the fb group have really put me of things that can go wrong

 

[upnortheast]

Does anyone spray the teats with water before attaching a fresh calved animal ?

If there is surplus hair we clean it off with the clippers. If the clippers aren`t to hand water helps

 

[upnortheast]

Getting close to deciding whether to fit robots which we will need 5 o

Have you read Tim Gibson in the latest DF mag. He was suggesting 4 robots max then the economics went away from robots

 

[Grassman247]

Have you read Tim Gibson in the latest DF mag. He was suggesting 4 robots max then the economics went away from robots

It was his article that started to change my mind and the fact that the farm would mostly be run by staff, I’ve got some good guys but I doubt they’d enjoy a midnight call out, also my Waikato 50 point hasn’t let me down in 10 years, I’ve never had to call a service tech out and service cost has been 3k per year

 

[yin ewe]

Does anyone spray the teats with water before attaching a fresh calved animal ?

If there is surplus hair we clean it off with the clippers. If the clippers aren`t to hand water helps

Try to clip heifers before 1st milking, but usually don't bother with cows.

 

[Chips]

Manual attach is the one thing that I'd add on our Lely. Not that I want to be spending time at each end of the day putting on clusters, that defeats the purpose of robots. I would like to be able to bring in a heifer let the laser scan a couple of times then attach the clusters by hand before she starts to fidget or get agitated. Use it for a couple of times until she settles down. I suppose that the argument against is that you might be tempted to use it too often. It's not a major issue but it would be nice to have the option.

Yes manual attach can help settle the odd fidgety heifer or when udder is too firm and rear teats can't be seen , never really culled a cow due to robot in 9yrs but have used manual attach a couple of times each year . Just slide the air collar /shut off to arm when x-link is on arrow screen and it releases the cups and opens the vacuum , this will allow you to milk if pulsation is on for about 4 minutes

 

[upnortheast]

It was his article that started to change my mind and the fact that the farm would mostly be run by staff, I’ve got some good guys but I doubt they’d enjoy a midnight call out, also my Waikato 50 point hasn’t let me down in 10 years, I’ve never had to call a service tech out and service cost has been 3k per year

On that basis it`s a straightforward decision I would have thought