Robotic milking

[Scholsey]

I’m looking at robot milking, going to start ringing round for quotes soon, he are my opinions of the machines, am I right?
Lely, market leader and arguably the best but you have to pay for it, bit like JD and Apple at marketing as you need to have the latest model and they stop supporting the older ones after a while.
Fullwood, good, but not quite as good as Lely.
GEA, the MIOne was unreliable, but is the Monobox and Multibox better?

Am I correct with my assessments? Which should I look at and steer away from? Any I should look at not listed?

Do you already have cows and milk through a parlour or starting new enterprise?

 

[s line]

I’m looking at robot milking, going to start ringing round for quotes soon, he are my opinions of the machines, am I right?
Lely, market leader and arguably the best but you have to pay for it, bit like JD and Apple at marketing as you need to have the latest model and they stop supporting the older ones after a while.
Fullwood, good, but not quite as good as Lely.
GEA, the MIOne was unreliable, but is the Monobox and Multibox better?

Am I correct with my assessments? Which should I look at and steer away from? Any I should look at not listed?

Got a 2nd hand one if you would like to have a play with!

 

[Winklepicker]

Do you already have cows and milk through a parlour or starting new enterprise?

Milking now, running with 90 cows atm but housing and parlour is getting tired, plus staff getting more unreliable has lead me to think about expanding herd with new shed and a couple of robots in there.
Don’t want to stop milking

 

[NI farmer]

Milking now, running with 90 cows atm but housing and parlour is getting tired, plus staff getting more unreliable has lead me to think about expanding herd with new shed and a couple of robots in there.
Don’t want to stop milking

Started with two delevals
Dealer backup needed with any brand

 

[Winklepicker]

Why have you missed Delaval's excellent VMS 300 ???

I forgot about them tbh, what are they like, as good as Lely and Fullwood?

 

[NI farmer]

I forgot about them tbh, what are they like, as good as Lely and Fullwood?

Guided system works well
Very little cows to fetch

 

[kill]

I forgot about them tbh, what are they like, as good as Lely and Fullwood?

Vms 300 is a top notch machine and probably as good and if not better than anything else on the market.

 

[Peter]

So do you need a sump under the cows in A5

This is using just the grate over small sump. The minimum that's needed

 

[farmboy]

Has anyone ever put a robot and associated equipment in a shipping container? Could it be done? Not talking about moving round fields with it more in a short term tenancy situation so you could literally pick the whole thing up and take it with you

 

[TheRanger]

Has anyone ever put a robot and associated equipment in a shipping container? Could it be done? Not talking about moving round fields with it more in a short term tenancy situation so you could literally pick the whole thing up and take it with you

A poster on the old forum (who started the original version of this thread), did that very thing.

 

[kill]

A poster on the old forum (who started the original version of this thread), did that very thing.

I think there's a YouTube video of something similar

 

[ollie989898]

Lely or VMS 300. VMS 300 must be good if a complete cretin like me can work it. No mapping of cows it just finds and attaches to any cow without grief.

Have heard disturbing things about the GEA stuff.

 

[ollie989898]

Vms 300 is a top notch machine and probably as good and if not better than anything else on the market.

The speed and simplicity of it is great. Easy to clean and operate too.

 

[saly123]

Just curious as to how are people buying/funding the robots.? Are peaople buying them or are there many of you hiring with all service costs covered.? ??

 

[Bald Rick]

Just curious as to how are people buying/funding the robots.? Are peaople buying them or are there many of you hiring with all service costs covered.? ??

Lot cheaper to buy using a bank loan than finance esp “deals” that a manufacturer may offer.
You need to negotiate a service contract BUT distance from service engineers does weaken your position

 

[wr.]

There's going to be a bit about robotic milking in the next half hour on BBC2 - Great British Railway Journeys.

 

[s line]

We got started with the new lely A5 today. Took 10 day's from taking out the A3 to this. Put into the same location apart from having to dig a new hole.

 

[s line]

Took out the next robot as soon as we got started with this. Hopefully should be a quicker turn around.

 

[yin ewe]

Central unit looks less complicated than A4, maybe just my imagination.

 

[pappuller]

Central unit looks less complicated than A4, maybe just my imagination.

No bladder or manifold setup