Robotic milking

pappuller

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
M6 Hard shoulder
Hello All,

Just wondering what teat dips people used through their Robots post-milking? We are running 2 Lely A5's on an open straw yard. Have been using what Lely push but seems quite dear, so just gauging what other might use?

And also anyone have good suppliers for all things chemicals?

Thanks!
Switched to a 3-1 iodine solution through the brushes and also use it through the teat spray, brushes run at 2x4secs per teat and spray is 2x2secs per teat
 

upnortheast

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Northumberland
Hello All,

Just wondering what teat dips people used through their Robots post-milking? We are running 2 Lely A5's on an open straw yard. Have been using what Lely push but seems quite dear, so just gauging what other might use?

And also anyone have good suppliers for all things chemicals?

Thanks!
Currently on Deosan Activate Pre / Post 200 litres about £240
 

Sid

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South Molton
Hello All,

Just wondering what teat dips people used through their Robots post-milking? We are running 2 Lely A5's on an open straw yard. Have been using what Lely push but seems quite dear, so just gauging what other might use?

And also anyone have good suppliers for all things chemicals?

Thanks!
Using delaval bovidip on medium coverage
 

jimmyl

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Herefordshire
Thanks everyone. Has anyone ever used Teat Dip from Wynnstay through their robots? Just called them and they are offering a 0.29 iodine at £195 + VAT.

Also another question on a slightly different subject...

My dad has always wanted to use fresh milk to feed the calves (largely made up by the high cell count/waste milk) but my brother and i have been pondering a switch to milk powder (possibly Wynnstay Rich Cream). Like all seasoned farmers he doesn't like change so just wondering if many others had made a switch and could add their thoughts?

Looks to me as though its marginally more expensive to feed the powder but when you factor in the time spent to separate the milk, constant cleaning of m4use buckets, and extra robot washes and the subsequent chemicals used, we reckon it could turn out to be a good option... and thats before you factor in the supposed benefits of not feeding high cell count or waste milk to the babies?
 

Jdunn55

Member
Thanks everyone. Has anyone ever used Teat Dip from Wynnstay through their robots? Just called them and they are offering a 0.29 iodine at £195 + VAT.

Also another question on a slightly different subject...

My dad has always wanted to use fresh milk to feed the calves (largely made up by the high cell count/waste milk) but my brother and i have been pondering a switch to milk powder (possibly Wynnstay Rich Cream). Like all seasoned farmers he doesn't like change so just wondering if many others had made a switch and could add their thoughts?

Looks to me as though its marginally more expensive to feed the powder but when you factor in the time spent to separate the milk, constant cleaning of m4use buckets, and extra robot washes and the subsequent chemicals used, we reckon it could turn out to be a good option... and thats before you factor in the supposed benefits of not feeding high cell count or waste milk to the babies?
Farm I used to work on fed high cell count milk to calves, ended up culling the highest one who came back with tb which was why she was high cell count) had to have a tb test and 50 heifer calves had to be shot because they tested positive for tb, it was awful

Because of that I will never ever ever feed waste milk to calves, it only takes one time
 

coomoo

Member
Thanks everyone. Has anyone ever used Teat Dip from Wynnstay through their robots? Just called them and they are offering a 0.29 iodine at £195 + VAT.

Also another question on a slightly different subject...

My dad has always wanted to use fresh milk to feed the calves (largely made up by the high cell count/waste milk) but my brother and i have been pondering a switch to milk powder (possibly Wynnstay Rich Cream). Like all seasoned farmers he doesn't like change so just wondering if many others had made a switch and could add their thoughts?

Looks to me as though its marginally more expensive to feed the powder but when you factor in the time spent to separate the milk, constant cleaning of m4use buckets, and extra robot washes and the subsequent chemicals used, we reckon it could turn out to be a good option... and thats before you factor in the supposed benefits of not feeding high cell count or waste milk to the babies?
Straight onto milk powder for me, Johnes. I’m on a Deosan teat spray in parlour with great results yours at over £100 less sounds cheap.
 

DickDastardly

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North Wales
Anyone running an adaptive cooling bulk tank with robots? Ours was commissioned two weeks ago. So far we have dumped over 2,000lts of milk slush puppy as it does nothing but freeze. Technicians say that the tank needs 300lts in one go to prevent this. Doesnt make much sense as i doubt there are many robot systems managing that unless they have a buffer tank. The unit was sold to us with adaptive cooling function so in essence ideal for low and intermittent volumes of milk. Once the milk reaches 5% of the tank capacity it switches to thermostatic cooling. Dealer supposed to look at it again tomorrow, id be interested to hear what sort of systems others have for cooling. We are 1 robot with 30 cows calved (rising to 80) and a 6000ltr bulk tank. TIA
 

upnortheast

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Northumberland
Haven't even heard of that. Is it a type of direct expansion tank. From our robots milk goes through a plate cooler using bore hole water then a second using chilled water from the ice bank tank. Goes into the tank at 5 degrees.
 

DickDastardly

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North Wales
Haven't even heard of that. Is it a type of direct expansion tank. From our robots milk goes through a plate cooler using bore hole water then a second using chilled water from the ice bank tank. Goes into the tank at 5 degrees.
It goes through a plate cooler and then into the tank. Small volumes results in the system diverting to fcc mode and it will cool the milk volume accordingly. Once it reaches the paddle it then switches to thermostatic. Display seems ok once theres around 450l in there. Its the initial first couple of hundred lts that seems to be causing havoc. Literally freezes rock hard and creates an iceberg 🙈 im not getting much sense from the manufacturer or dealer. They even told me that robots dont suite block calving systems. Everything seems to be our fault and not theirs. Very convenient for them.
 

Sid

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South Molton
Anyone running an adaptive cooling bulk tank with robots? Ours was commissioned two weeks ago. So far we have dumped over 2,000lts of milk slush puppy as it does nothing but freeze. Technicians say that the tank needs 300lts in one go to prevent this. Doesnt make much sense as i doubt there are many robot systems managing that unless they have a buffer tank. The unit was sold to us with adaptive cooling function so in essence ideal for low and intermittent volumes of milk. Once the milk reaches 5% of the tank capacity it switches to thermostatic cooling. Dealer supposed to look at it again tomorrow, id be interested to hear what sort of systems others have for cooling. We are 1 robot with 30 cows calved (rising to 80) and a 6000ltr bulk tank. TIA

Had issues whilst setting up our VMS and the T200 controller.

Now we don't have any issues with freezing.

The VMS tells the T200 how long to cool for. Then after x number of litres goes into constant cooling.

Installers should be able to set that up tbh
 

DickDastardly

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North Wales
Had issues whilst setting up our VMS and the T200 controller.

Now we don't have any issues with freezing.

The VMS tells the T200 how long to cool for. Then after x number of litres goes into constant cooling.

Installers should be able to set that up tbh
Yes. They have been playing about with it. I dont think that the install and the commissioning was half done properly. They are meant to have another bash at it today. Fingers crossed.
 

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