jockthethistle
Member
They will eat twice as much concentrates if you let them .. jtt
Robotic milking
- Thread starter newholland
- Start date
- Location
- Northumberland
You have the power to feed them as much or as little as you want. Ours are showing 0.25 kg / litre just now
- Location
- M6 Hard shoulder
As with all things you will only get out what you put in, the beauty of the bots they will give you more milk by virtue of the extra milkings, but you still have to feed for it.
1) Swear
2) Kick the dog
two things I would absolutely do is to have a generator of a sufficient size to run all your power requirements & have a gizmo in your bedroom that alarms if the power fails even for a short time, the robots will stop and the CRS may not alarm for a time
Surprising how often the power fails when you have robots ....
Chips
Member
- Location
- Shropshire
At the shoulders of the season I only graze during the day and then tmr at night , this is far harder than grazing the full 24hr . With 24hr milking it's best to get a steady flow of cows , with all doing different things at any given time and thus avoid bottlenecks , ideally you never see more than one or two cows waiting outside the robot otherwise you will end up with dead times and less over all milkings . When you do the 12hr graze you encourage all the cows to want to got out at once when grazing starts and all come in at once when they hear the zero grazed grass being fed . Or if they really like being outside they will be reluctant to come home on their own accord during the day for fear of not being able to get back out again until tomorrow . With 24hr grazing with a buffer in shed 24hr cows can go where they like when they like as long as they milk themselves , and this encourages them to come home and all at different times , I fetch very few cows if any once they are out 24hrs , when at grass in the day only milkings per cow drops from either fully housed or 24hr grazing . Give them zero grazed grass 24hrs and graze 24hrs, they'll sort their own day out far better than we can .
Was reading an article in the Irish Farmers Journal about a farm in Scotland who have 4 lely robots. They say they expect the robots to last 10 years.
When doing your calculations for cost of purchasing compared to conventional parlour what life span have other robot users used.
When doing your calculations for cost of purchasing compared to conventional parlour what life span have other robot users used.
Lot of the stuff on the bots are plug n play so as long as they are still made, there is no reason not to assume that they would go on for 20+ years. Apparently the original Lely robot is still milking cows quite happily and that would be 23 years old now.
We would only upgrade ours if Lely produce a stripped out XL bot
- Location
- M6 Hard shoulder
Same here just a basic milking machine is all we'd trade to.
wasted years
Member
- Location
- Cumbrian born and bread
My A2 is 16 years old if that helps, only lifetime limiting factor is spares availability.
Massey6190
New Member
Zero grazing on single delaval robot here at the minute, good increase in milk and solids and cows are milking steady through the day and night
Massey6190
New Member
Out grazing light covers and zero grazing heavy covers at night to utilize grass better. Weather hasn't suited grazing last few days so been souly zero grazing and working nearly as good
Claas Andy
Member
- Location
- South West Scotland
Definitely decided to buy either M2erlin or Lely A4 very similar on price but the Lely doesn't have the steam flush. Do you think it is needed or a cold rinse is ample? Would you believe Fullwood when they say electric usage is less because of motors instead of compressed air?
- Location
- M6 Hard shoulder
We had the pura steamer on our robots. A4, they have been switched off for 18 mnths and just on flushing now, bacto in single figures scc around 100, pura isnt cheap to run.what have you specced with lely ? We also had weigh floors and cell count testing, both are an expensive waste of time in my opinion as is the pura, specc your robot as simple as possible as you only want it to milk your cows, think @Bald Rick will agree.pm if you want a chat.
jockthethistle
Member
Yes I would believe Fullwood on that point .... jtt
Apart from the fact that I have just worked out PPs login
... I would agree 100%.We don't bother with Pura as it's too unreliable and so long as the brushes are set correctly & there is actually chemical on them, they do a good job.
The weigh floor was sold as there was a thinking Lely were going to monitor a cow's weight & feed accordingly but they are designed for Holsteins so a total waste of time for us but were chucked in with the celebration model of A4 gratis.
Keep it a simple as possible. The more you add, the more that will potentially go wrong.
I have no issue with other robot makes but it is worth bearing in mind that Lely have sold their forage division to concentrate on the dairy side so there could be interesting developments in the pipeline plus they have been at it for 23 years now so they have got robot milking pretty well sussed. Servicing & speed of obtaining replacement bits & speed of attending breakdowns beyond your capabilities are absolutely paramount.
- Location
- Cumbria
It really depends what your motivation and abilities are, and what you want from robots. Personally I think the ability to sterilise, should needs arise is a great benefit.
Future proofing equipment against further improvements is also important, you do not know what is around the corner regarding advancements with technology.
Future proofing equipment against further improvements is also important, you do not know what is around the corner regarding advancements with technology.
- Location
- Northern Ireland
What sort of prices are the m2erlin and the a4s