Robotic milking

[happycows]

What would be the reasoning behind that?

Milk quality issues and low fpd’s.
doesn’t make sense to me. Why ditch perfectly good farms if everything ticks all the boxes.
I get lower fpd’s in summer when I’m feeding large quantities of zero grazed grass but on Arla contract your not penalised other than lower solids.

 

[Spudley]

Surely there is nothing wrong with older equipment, properly serviced and maintained? There are lots of old parlours going strong! Our tractor mechanic was out yesterday, word is new tractors aren't selling, people are buying good quality older kit because it's easier to keep running.

 

[pappuller]

Milk quality issues and low fpd’s.
doesn’t make sense to me. Why ditch perfectly good farms if everything ticks all the boxes.
I get lower fpd’s in summer when I’m feeding large quantities of zero grazed grass but on Arla contract your not penalised other than lower solids.

Be very surprised if this is true but if it is sounds like @Bald Rick has been ahead of the curve [emoji23]

 

[upnortheast]

Anyone else heard Glanbia are ceasing too collect from any robot farm who’s robots are older than 5 years??

That has to be utter rubbish.
Maybe they have fallen out with a shithole farmer with 6 years old robots, & the rumour has evolved

 

[ollie989898]

That has to be utter rubbish.
Maybe they have fallen out with a shithole farmer with 6 years old robots, & the rumour has evolved

They probably mean robots which have not been cleaned in 5 years...

 

[Bald Rick]

Be very surprised if this is true but if it is sounds like @Bald Rick has been ahead of the curve [emoji23]

Not Glanbia cheese ... must be Glanbia Ireland

Never had an issue with FPD ... always 520+ and had better quality (cells and bacto) in robots than on the rotary.
May be someone has an agenda?

 

[Wishful Thinker]

Am I missing something off the end of the right roller? Fell off a couple of times, guessing it’s meant to look like the left?
De laval classic.

 

[chas]

View attachment 855387
Am I missing something off the end of the right roller? Fell off a couple of times, guessing it’s meant to look like the left?
De laval classic.

Yeah it’s meant to look like the left ,took a pic of mine but couldn’t get it to upload

 

[Spear]

View attachment 855387
Am I missing something off the end of the right roller? Fell off a couple of times, guessing it’s meant to look like the left?
De laval classic.

If it’s falling off check both plastic bushes are still there and make sure grub screw is tight to stop sprung end moving after fitting

 

[Wesley]

I’m after a bit of advice please. We’re putting robots in this summer & i like the idea of feeding a blend through them, quite possibly home mixing. From the countless hours i’ve spent reading all i can on TFF it sounds like it works & there should be quite a saving over cake. My main concern is whether the cows will eat enough quick enough as not to slow the robots throughput down? I’d imagine its fine with lower yields but will it work with 10500+ litre cows?

 

[Col555]

I visited a farm who fed a blend rather than a nut, when we looked at different brands of robot. I couldn’t tell you about the eating speed or financial benefit, but the ‘clean room’s’ and basically anywhere within 3-4 meters of the trough were covered in meal dust.

 

[Sid]

I’m after a bit of advice please. We’re putting robots in this summer & i like the idea of feeding a blend through them, quite possibly home mixing. From the countless hours i’ve spent reading all i can on TFF it sounds like it works & there should be quite a saving over cake. My main concern is whether the cows will eat enough quick enough as not to slow the robots throughput down? I’d imagine its fine with lower yields but will it work with 10500+ litre cows?

OOPF?

 

[Bald Rick]

Far more likely to get bridging with blend than a nut .. and nuts were bad enough esp as the feed holes on a Lely are comparatively small.
Mind you, was even worse when the feed pipe came off a few times and the auger thought it was out of feed.

KISS is my advice

 

[Wesley]

OOPF?

I’ve always been a big fan of OOPF’s, but the idea of them with robots always confuses me a bit. I understand it would free up robot time but if the cow knows it can get feed elsewhere would it not effect the visits per day?

Far more likely to get bridging with blend than a nut .. and nuts were bad enough esp as the feed holes on a Lely are comparatively small.
Mind you, was even worse when the feed pipe came off a few times and the auger thought it was out of feed.

KISS is my advice

I would be tipping it in a hopper rather than blowing it in a bin as i know that can be a recipe for disaster, but never thought too much about it bridging in the robot.

 

[DocPhil001]

I’ve always been a big fan of OOPF’s, but the idea of them with robots always confuses me a bit. I understand it would free up robot time but if the cow knows it can get feed elsewhere would it not effect the visits per day?

I would be tipping it in a hopper rather than blowing it in a bin as i know that can be a recipe for disaster, but never thought too much about it bridging in the robot.

@happycows uses blend in his bots.

 

[Peter]

I’ve always been a big fan of OOPF’s, but the idea of them with robots always confuses me a bit. I understand it would free up robot time but if the cow knows it can get feed elsewhere would it not effect the visits per day?

Software ahead on that (Lely). If close to her milking time or close to allotted amount of feed, would not get feed in OOPF. Then she would go to the robot looking for the feed. Had a customer with two OOPF and one robot- over 6yrs now. Works well.

 

[yin ewe]

Software ahead on that (Lely). If close to her milking time or close to allotted amount of feed, would not get feed in OOPF. Then she would go to the robot looking for the feed. Had a customer with two OOPF and one robot- over 6yrs now. Works well.

That's the way we work, blocks of silage the feed passage, one robot and 2 oopfs. Yesterday we had 195 milkings and 214 refusals, so I don't think robot visits are affected by the oopfs at all. They have been at least as good an investment as the robot itself. No over or under feeding, cow gets the right amount of nuts she needs.
Not tried blend in them, as someone has already said, keep it simple.

 

[ollie989898]

I visited a farm who fed a blend rather than a nut, when we looked at different brands of robot. I couldn’t tell you about the eating speed or financial benefit, but the ‘clean room’s’ and basically anywhere within 3-4 meters of the trough were covered in meal dust.

I've seen a parlour where they fed blend and it was absolutely layered in dust from it.

 

[pappuller]

I’m after a bit of advice please. We’re putting robots in this summer & i like the idea of feeding a blend through them, quite possibly home mixing. From the countless hours i’ve spent reading all i can on TFF it sounds like it works & there should be quite a saving over cake. My main concern is whether the cows will eat enough quick enough as not to slow the robots throughput down? I’d imagine its fine with lower yields but will it work with 10500+ litre cows?

We have only ever fed pellets through the bots, as has already been mentioned dust,bridging and inconsistent flow will be your issues I would think, also a little point to consider how big a mix are you planning on doing and is it going to be done in a separate mixer ? You will get pieces of forage in the mix and that is a big no no certainly with the Lely feeders.
What brand are you installing and where are you based ?

 

[Wesley]

We have only ever fed pellets through the bots, as has already been mentioned dust,bridging and inconsistent flow will be your issues I would think, also a little point to consider how big a mix are you planning on doing and is it going to be done in a separate mixer ? You will get pieces of forage in the mix and that is a big no no certainly with the Lely feeders.
What brand are you installing and where are you based ?

We’re on the Devon/Somerset border. It’ll be two Lely A5’s going in. It would be mixed with the same mixer we feed everything with. We generally mix all our own blends & do anything up to 10t a time. Although buying a load & tipping wouldn’t be an issue. Home mixing was only an option. I like the idea of the cost saving on a blend & also being able to feed decent raw materials without all the rubbish that gets put in the nuts. But if its going to cause more hassle that what i’d gain then maybe its just easier to do it the conventional way.