Robotic milking
- Thread starter newholland
- Start date
Barmyfarmer
Member
Think @pappuller put some very honest costings in this thread in the summer sometime, top and bottom of it is robots are definitely not a cheap way to milk cows, but if you have a decent contract and good security it might be worth a shot
- Location
- M6 Hard shoulder
We produce approx 2m litres off 3 Lely A4 robots, 180 coos no ystock and a 4 family farm house, we use approx 22cubic metres of water per day, our electric bill is approx £1400/mnth +vat. We pay £230/robot/mnth for just servicing consumables and labour 4 times a year. Chemicals, consumables, breakdowns and parts will add around0.5ppl but we do a majority of repairs ourselves if possible.
Thanks for that, just what I wanted.
I can see us going robotic at some point; our parlour is too good to throw out, but can anyone explain why milking with a robot is not ideal from paddocks?
We zero graze which I believe helps?
Would it be too much to milk 80-85 cows from one robot? We're organic so we're not running super high yielding cows.
Is anyone using renewable energy to run robots ie solar or wind or both and also wood boiler?
I worked on a farm that had a merlin and all the rumours I heard about robots were quickly proven wrong.
We zero graze which I believe helps?
Would it be too much to milk 80-85 cows from one robot? We're organic so we're not running super high yielding cows.
Is anyone using renewable energy to run robots ie solar or wind or both and also wood boiler?
I worked on a farm that had a merlin and all the rumours I heard about robots were quickly proven wrong.
Grazing with robots works fine, we graze here but find that visits will drop the further away the paddocks are.
60-65 is the most we can ever get on our robot and 65 would be very very tight. Had 69 on it a few months after start up (over 7 years ago) sold 9 culls and bulk tank went up. You may be able to get a few more on an organic set up but I think milking 85 would be a struggle.
60-65 is the most we can ever get on our robot and 65 would be very very tight. Had 69 on it a few months after start up (over 7 years ago) sold 9 culls and bulk tank went up. You may be able to get a few more on an organic set up but I think milking 85 would be a struggle.
It's down the line for us, but we need c.80-100 cows.
I guess that's two robot territory which will then push us to max the robots and now we are at 120 cows!!!!
Grazing platform wouldn't handle those numbers so it all needs a rethink.
Will a second hand robot lessen the financial demand to max the herd and offer some redundancy /inbuilt capacity??
I know nothing about the figures to run these robots, to buy, lease, run etc.
I guess that's two robot territory which will then push us to max the robots and now we are at 120 cows!!!!
Grazing platform wouldn't handle those numbers so it all needs a rethink.
Will a second hand robot lessen the financial demand to max the herd and offer some redundancy /inbuilt capacity??
I know nothing about the figures to run these robots, to buy, lease, run etc.
- Location
- South West
Milking 93 here with 2 delaval vms classic's and cows are really comfortable and if one robot go's down I am not having a nervous breakdown as cows soon catch up again.
2x late model vms's classic's were on par with one new Lely on price last year. Almost bought second hand robots but due to a dealer that didn't fulfill and deliver second hand reconditioned robots , new were purchased elsewhere for less than 10% more as there were robots available for immediate delivery and at discounted rates due to new models released.
We run ours on renewable energy when our turbine isn't broken down
. (50kw)
Scholsey
Member
- Location
- Herefordshire
Plenty of good second hand robots about and will be even more once all the grant robots start up and people make a complete hash of it because some only put them in because of the grant funding and can’t be arsed to milk anymore.
- Location
- Cumbria
Robots are not about cow numbers, they are about ltrs/hour/day/month/year as mentioned by yin ewe above. The objective should be max litres for min cows.
- Location
- M6 Hard shoulder
How much of the forage is zg grass ? I presume your organic status means you have to graze ?
- Location
- M6 Hard shoulder
100% agree we are currently 150 cows on 3 Lely a4s and sending just under 6000l a day.
Overall, it's not that much, we zero graze around end July as paddocks slip back, our main feed is grass from paddocks. We're on pit silage and wholecrop .
- Location
- Eastern Ontario Canada
That is the proper way to number crunch.
When I started in robot service work 20 yrs ago the goal was 30kg+ average. Now it is 45kg which is being acheived by many.
Many farms we installed bots on reduced cow numbers because the production increase put them over quota. When they could get more quota they added additional robots.
Take your production records and look for sustained 2000kg + production per 24hr per machine. If your not doing that easily then something is wrong and get it fixed. most
of the time it is feed and human control related. The machine only harvests what you send to.
- Location
- M6 Hard shoulder
Do you feed any silage while your cows are grazing ?
- Location
- M6 Hard shoulder
Do you feed any silage while your cows are grazing ?
- Location
- South Molton
Where did you get your idea from????
Two 2nd hand delaval vms ,refurbed, installed , tank ,3phase and building work done for less than this list price of a new tractor, then take the grant off.
3 smart gates allowing ABC grazing.
Don't have to fetch cows average 2.6 milking when at grass and over 3 when housed.
We are milking 80-90 6 miles away from home and have been spending on average 2-2.5 hours a day on winter routines, feeding, bedding,scraping, VMS tasks. All YS at home.
What the VMS does for us is allows flexibility compared to the parlour set up at home.
Edit we are organic and AB free as well
- Location
- Lancashire, Home of the Deluge
.....anyone heard from seasider lately
