Robotic milking

Started my own thread to get some feedback on this but now looking more specifically at robot stuff.

Looking at purchasing a neighbouring dairy, 2 gea monoboxes. First off we’d swap to deleval robots. Cows would be calved and milked at main farm and then moved to second farm after a few days as there are no good facilities for calving at the farm we are looking at.

Have a real keen guy that is willing to take on the challenge of running the robot dairy. What management personality fits best with robots?

Seems there are some people that make robots work well and some that really should just stick with the parlour.
 

AWJ26

Member
Location
Cornwall
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
A4 doesn't mix the brush cleaner in the boiler. I connected the heat recovery supply straight into the boiler inlet, no extra valve needed.
 

WestNI

Member
Livestock Farmer
Started my own thread to get some feedback on this but now looking more specifically at robot stuff.

Looking at purchasing a neighbouring dairy, 2 gea monoboxes. First off we’d swap to deleval robots.

=

Curious as to why the first thing to do is replace the GEA monoboxes? We are happy with our 2. Running 2 years.
 

WestNI

Member
Livestock Farmer
Ecoli mastitis lely a4 robots. Currently running a low SCC of 130 yet we get random flare up of ecoli masitis. Anyone else have this problem? If so whats causing it?
For years we ran a SCC around 80-120 and had Ecoli Flare ups every few months, Stopped using Cepravin Dry Cow tubes and now our SCC is around 150 and Ecoli has drastically reduced.
We got a flare up a few months ago on our Robot set up, the only thing that had changed was we started to feed them 1st cut silage which had slipped down the silo, a cow every few days and it was a severe strain. Nightmare. We put toxin binder into the cake and that solved the issue.
 

Whitewalker

Member
For years we ran a SCC around 80-120 and had Ecoli Flare ups every few months, Stopped using Cepravin Dry Cow tubes and now our SCC is around 150 and Ecoli has drastically reduced.
We got a flare up a few months ago on our Robot set up, the only thing that had changed was we started to feed them 1st cut silage which had slipped down the silo, a cow every few days and it was a severe strain. Nightmare. We put toxin binder into the cake and that solved the issue.
We used to use cepravin too , no robots here but always had excellent low cell count but some very severe ecoli episodes . Mostly seal tears now with only a few dry cow antibiotics and our ecoli’s are few and far between. Cells running slightly higher but still normal range.
 

WestNI

Member
Livestock Farmer
We used to use cepravin too , no robots here but always had excellent low cell count but some very severe ecoli episodes . Mostly seal tears now with only a few dry cow antibiotics and our ecoli’s are few and far between. Cells running slightly higher but still normal range.

Yep sounds the exact same. We run a parlour and robots, the latest E.coli episode was only in the robot shed, so the robots were getting the blame. But the real reason was toxins in the silage.

We still use dry cow antibiotics but just the shorter withdrawal tubes, we do not milk record so can not use selective dry cow therapy. we now run a higher scc but with less ecoli.
 

pappuller

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
M6 Hard shoulder
Yep sounds the exact same. We run a parlour and robots, the latest E.coli episode was only in the robot shed, so the robots were getting the blame. But the real reason was toxins in the silage.

We still use dry cow antibiotics but just the shorter withdrawal tubes, we do not milk record so can not use selective dry cow therapy. we now run a higher scc but with less ecoli.
Would not ecoli in the udder not enter through the udder ?
 

WestNI

Member
Livestock Farmer
Would not ecoli in the udder not enter through the udder ?

Are you referring to the toxins in the silage causing the ecoli?
The toxins cause a reduced immunity in the cows therefore leaving them more prone to infection.

The silage was the only thing that changed, it had slipped down the pit so was mouldy in places, when the toxin absorber was added to the meal, the ecoli stopped.

Toxins in silage can apparently cause a whole range of issues such as swollen hawks and fertility issues.
 

Agrifool

Member
Are you referring to the toxins in the silage causing the ecoli?
The toxins cause a reduced immunity in the cows therefore leaving them more prone to infection.

The silage was the only thing that changed, it had slipped down the pit so was mouldy in places, when the toxin absorber was added to the meal, the ecoli stopped.

Toxins in silage can apparently cause a whole range of issues such as swollen hawks and fertility issues.

Apparently there are hundreds of different toxins. Did you actually test to see what toxins was the culprit or did you guess it was toxins that was the problem? Binders are expensive but worth it if you get the results
 

WestNI

Member
Livestock Farmer
Apparently there are hundreds of different toxins. Did you actually test to see what toxins was the culprit or did you guess it was toxins that was the problem? Binders are expensive but worth it if you get the results

No we did not test and was not aware you could test, but it happened straight after we changed silage, and absolutely nothing else changed, the robots got the blame first but we had them checked over and they where 100% so it could be nothing else, we are running a milking parlour too and there were no issues in that shed, the only difference was they where not getting the same silage. The E.coli stopped as soon as the binder went in. It was like a switch was flicked. So it kind of was a guess but a calculated guess.

Binders sure are expensive but we lost a few very good cows to the E.coli and saving just one of them would have paid for a lot of binder.
 

Whitewalker

Member
No we did not test and was not aware you could test, but it happened straight after we changed silage, and absolutely nothing else changed, the robots got the blame first but we had them checked over and they where 100% so it could be nothing else, we are running a milking parlour too and there were no issues in that shed, the only difference was they where not getting the same silage. The E.coli stopped as soon as the binder went in. It was like a switch was flicked. So it kind of was a guess but a calculated guess.

Binders sure are expensive but we lost a few very good cows to the E.coli and saving just one of them would have paid for a lot of binder.
Are binders not couple quid a ton on top of a ton of meal?
 

Whitewalker

Member
Its working in about £7 or £8 a ton I think. But depends how much meal you are feeding
Guy I work for sells toxin binder for £19 a bag , feed rates at 50-100 grams per cow per day . Works out at 3.8-7.6pence per cow /day . Can be put through diet feeder .

could you put it through a supplemental feeder in the bot?

you can do the maths compared to meal added
 
Theres a few around us, not many have been put in since and I dont hear brilliant reports about them, especially when compared to lely, delaval, or even fullwood, which to me says enough
Fulwood bots seem to have agood name up north with good back up ,its the Delaval bots that dont,
 

Jdunn55

Member
Fulwood bots seem to have agood name up north with good back up ,its the Delaval bots that dont,
Down here its lely or nothing tbh. Dont know any delaval bots personally, know of two fullwood robots on one farm and depending on the day of the week they either love them or are threatening to put a spanner through them...
Like I say theres a few boumatic bots that all went in at roughly the same time, theres been very few since and I'm yet to hear very good reports on them. They're always middling-bad reports, whereas most people who have put in lely robots have been very pleased with them.
The main problem I hear about the boumatics is the shear number of calls saying theres a problem.

Make of that what you will. I know nothing on a day to day basis.
 

Sid

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South Molton
Down here its lely or nothing tbh. Dont know any delaval bots personally, know of two fullwood robots on one farm and depending on the day of the week they either love them or are threatening to put a spanner through them...
Like I say theres a few boumatic bots that all went in at roughly the same time, theres been very few since and I'm yet to hear very good reports on them. They're always middling-bad reports, whereas most people who have put in lely robots have been very pleased with them.
The main problem I hear about the boumatics is the shear number of calls saying theres a problem.

Make of that what you will. I know nothing on a day to day basis.
Down here? Helston, pretty narrow area .

Plenty of De lavals around if you look. Does really depend on dealers TBH some Delaval dealers don't do robots.
 

Jdunn55

Member
Down here? Helston, pretty narrow area .

Plenty of De lavals around if you look. Does really depend on dealers TBH some Delaval dealers don't do robots.
Nothing against delavals at all, but couldnt comment as A: I know no-one with one, but B: I hear nothing about them, good, bad nor ugly.

Hear plenty about lelys with most reports being positive, hear a bit about boumatics, mostly negative, and the one fullwood farm who is mixed - but that could be a dealership thing rather than a robot thing from what I can gather.

Down here as in west cornwall. Know plenty of people from the penzance area and beyond that, but dont know anywhere near as many to the east of helston admittedly.
 

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