Robotic milking

[s line]

Last cow being milked in Vms before a return to the parlour after 11 years.

Fair play to you for making this decision.

Hope it goes well for you.

 

[Seasider]

Fair play to you for making this decision.

Hope it goes well for you.

 

[Johnjohn39]

Robots are for everyone, but then neither is milking cows.

Know of a parlour farm where if they are busy cows might only get milked once a day, been told of a robot farm where the Mrs goes out at 5am and 5 pm and has to push the cows in from grazing.

Just as well have a parlour then?

Be careful who you get into bed with in robots.
The required advice is not on these forums, and when you ask advisors they will just tell you you have 2-3 options.
Are you suited to robotics, is your farm. Do you have any idea what you are getting into apart from a futuristic looking system.
Lely are the market leaders... what does that really mean.
De laval can give you other milking options.
How are the service centres running.
In Ireland today there are huge hidden problems with one of the above.
There are farmers pulling their hair out, and can say nothing, as they are stuck with something not working
What cost do you put on 24/7 anxiety.

 

[Scholsey]

Be careful who you get into bed with in robots.
The required advice is not on these forums, and when you ask advisors they will just tell you you have 2-3 options.
Are you suited to robotics, is your farm. Do you have any idea what you are getting into apart from a futuristic looking system.
Lely are the market leaders... what does that really mean.
De laval can give you other milking options.
How are the service centres running.
In Ireland today there are huge hidden problems with one of the above.
There are farmers pulling their hair out, and can say nothing, as they are stuck with something not working
What cost do you put on 24/7 anxiety.

I think there is a lot to be said for a big mother of a parlour that can whack all your cows through and wash down in a hour and a half.

The running costs and servicing and repairs are astronomical compared to what your told on robots.
I wouldn’t want to be without mine but if I had to pay for even half the labour I do with them onto top of the servicing and repairs I honestly don’t think they would stack up.

 

[Gerbert]

There we go. Now been going for a day and seems to going well.

 

[farmer JD]

View attachment 915553
There we go. Now been going for a day and seems to going well.

What are these cows montbelliarde or fleckvieh cattle?

 

[pappuller]

What are these cows montbelliarde or fleckvieh cattle?

You beat me to it [emoji23]

 

[s line]

What are these cows montbelliarde or fleckvieh cattle?

Montys i reckon?

 

[Gerbert]

They are fleckvieh crosses

 

[farmer JD]

They are fleckvieh crosses

They are smart cattle

 

[farmer JD]

How many are you milking of fleckvieh and how do you find them ?

 

[Gerbert]

20 or so. They are nothing special in any way really, but that what we kinda aim for. Easy cows that keep healthy and go down in milk before going down themselves. Teat placement and form could be better really.
They are really cheecky, young fleckviehs will just push aside any old friesian holstein we have.

 

[Wesley]

Has anyone got their robots, red ones in particular, plumbed into a heat recovery unit? I’m assuming it can be done? Is it cost effective, bearing in mind there’s currently a grant available & are there any drawbacks to it?

 

[upnortheast]

With A3 /A4 you need an extra valve that allows hot water in when the boiler is filling for a wash & cold water when it is filling for the brush sprayer.
Depends how much hot water your heat recovery is producing, You could have the boiler always filling with hot. Don`t think that would be a problem with the brush acid ??
Not sure of the A5 setup

 

[yin ewe]

Has anyone got their robots, red ones in particular, plumbed into a heat recovery unit? I’m assuming it can be done? Is it cost effective, bearing in mind there’s currently a grant available & are there any drawbacks to it?

We have one plumbed into to boiler that heats the water for the bulk tank washer, also have a tap on the line that we can get warm water off for feeding calves etc as the tank is only washed every other day.

 

[Sid]

Has anyone got their robots, red ones in particular, plumbed into a heat recovery unit? I’m assuming it can be done? Is it cost effective, bearing in mind there’s currently a grant available & are there any drawbacks to it?

We have had heat recovery in from day 1,its not as good as the parlour one but it does preheat the water to 35.
Parlour one will get to 55. I guess it the slower cooling as slower milk volumes and also greater demand in hot water by robots

 

[Scholsey]

The one from our silo compressor gets water too hot to wash your hands with! The tank Wash boiler, robot wash boiler and buffer tank boiler all fill up with it.

 

[upnortheast]

We looked at heat recovery a few times and the sums didn't add up. .With the grant it became a goer 3 compressors connected .Water usually about 55 degrees. Currently filling tank washer boiler and boiler for processing shed .

 

[nonemouse]

We fitted a warm fill valve to our A3n and connected to heat recovery, savings are bad to quantify but definitely knock about 3/4 hour off boiler heating time on a single phase installed robot. (Plus can draw hot water off for calf feeding).

 

[upnortheast]

We fitted a warm fill valve to our A3n and connected to heat recovery, savings are bad to quantify but definitely knock about 3/4 hour off boiler heating time on a single phase installed robot. (Plus can draw hot water off for calf feeding).

Suppose that could be quantifyed as 3kw x .75 of an hour x 15p kw x 3 washes a day x 365 days year = £370 / year ??