Robots with grazing and TMR

[Azfarmer]

Hi,

I'm interest in getting milking robots, currently we have 250 cows with plans to expand to 300. Our current milk production is between 10-11k cow/year, we plan to maintain it or even increase it. The cows graze almost year round, with also feed them lots of TMR and concentrate.

From what I gathered and was told, we either do the ABC system with little to no TMR/concentrate, or we keep the cows in the shed almost exclusively. It's strange, no middle ground.

I'm from the Portuguese Islands of the Azores, where the climate is similar to UK, but a fair bit milder. We would be the first farm with grazing and robots here. I'm told there's no robots with substantial grazing in either mainland Portugal or Spain, so here I am.

What's your opinion/experience?

 

[upnortheast]

Only quite recently I found out there is substantial dairy farming on the Azores. Looks an interesting place.

I would suggest you take a few days off & look at some robot farms, maybe Holland or the UK & see for yourself the various options for robotic milking.
If you come to the UK plenty folk on here would let you visit, though for the next 5 months most will be housed full time regardless of summer system

 

[Wesley]

Is there many other robots around? If not the biggest issue would be repairs & spare parts. It can be done but you’d need to carry a big stock of items to cover you for the “just in case” scenario.

 

[upnortheast]

Not just parts, but local expertise & support is very important, certainly for the 1st year

 

[Azfarmer]

Thanks guys. We are aware of the importance of support, we are setting up a team, which is the hardest part... We are doing things the "proper way".

We are waiting for a meeting with a guy from the Netherlands. But I have a feeling the UK would be the closest to what we want.

So my question is: Is it usual, farms with high production (10k+) and successful voluntary cow moviment from the pasture to the robots, with a considerable percentage of feed from TMR and concentrate?

I was told that it would be extremely challenging to have voluntary movement with grazing and the production numbers we want. All try articles and studies I've read about voluntary grazing the production numbers are quite low, between 6k and 8k.

 

[Wesley]

I assume it works to do A & B as grazing, C being TMR? Swear I’ve seen it somewhere. But would depend how much TMR you’re looking to get them to eat I suppose

 

[Azfarmer]

@upnortheast Yes very interesting... More cows than people... We produce 1/3 to 1/2 of all the milk consumed in Portugal.

I would love to visit UK farm regardless, but I'm more interested in a specific production method. I'm trying to find which place is more similar to what we want.

Even if the climate is similar, culture and economics play a part in the farm system we will end up building. Some expensive things in the UK are cheap here and vice a versa.

 

[Azfarmer]

I assume it works to do A & B as grazing, C being TMR? Swear I’ve seen it somewhere. But would depend how much TMR you’re looking to get them to eat I suppose

The ideal system would be A pasture with B and C TMR for early lactation cows and A B pasture with C TMR for late lactation cows.

The alternatives are batch and zero grazing.

 

[upnortheast]

Your initial posts say you feed lots of TMR and concentrate. Does that suggest your grazing is more recreational rather than a significant part of the diet ?

We found getting grazing right was the hardest part of robot milking. So as you suggest in your post above above even harder with lots of TMR & concs in the shed.
Also dependant on the layout of your farm. Need a lot of ground within (say) 400metres of the shed for 300 cows.
Take what the salesman says with care, Best speak to farmers who have robots & see their setups.

Someone on here has the robot & grazing job sussed. Just forgotten who. in Yorkshire I think maybe @nonemouse ?

If you search this forum there have been a number of threads on robot milking which might be of interest. This one for example.

Robotic milking

Chips, Happy cows, Kevin and everybody else who is Robotic milking - your updates, thoughts, experiences and ideas were much appriciated. Please feel free to continue!

thefarmingforum.co.uk

 

[Azfarmer]

Thanks for the advice, I will take a look around the forum.

It depends on the season. Some times cows are almost exclusively fed with TMR, other times TMR is used to complement the nutricional deficiencies of grass.

 

[Thompyd]

I know a farm in Ireland doing those yields, grazing but also offering other forage during the grazing season. I would have thought GEA, Lely or De Laval could have pointed you in the right direction

 

[box]

Why not use a virtual fencing system like Halter to move batches of animals to/from the milking robots?

 

[Azfarmer]

I know a farm in Ireland doing those yields, grazing but also offering other forage during the grazing season. I would have thought GEA, Lely or De Laval could have pointed you in the right direction

I would love to know more about it. The problem is what type of grazing system? Voluntary or in batches pushed by us? We are looking into robots for a more flexible work schedule, we don't want to push cows arround all day.

At the moment our only option is GEA and GEA Portugal/Spain does not have any experience with grazing and robots. There's little comunication between regions within GEA. Our sales rep/assistant is trying to set us up in someone from GEA Netherlands.

 

[Azfarmer]

Why not use a virtual fencing system like Halter to move batches of animals to/from the milking robots?

That's a good idea, I was trying to see if batches would be pratical, I was thinking about batt latch. I will take a look into the Halter system. Thank you.

 

[Thompyd]

I would love to know more about it. The problem is what type of grazing system? Voluntary or in batches pushed by us? We are looking into robots for a more flexible work schedule, we don't want to push cows arround all day.

At the moment our only option is GEA and GEA Portugal/Spain does not have any experience with grazing and robots. There's little comunication between regions within GEA. Our sales rep/assistant is trying to set us up in someone from GEA Netherlands.

 

[upnortheast]

I would love to know more about it. The problem is what type of grazing system? Voluntary or in batches pushed by us? We are looking into robots for a more flexible work schedule, we don't want to push cows arround all day.

At the moment our only option is GEA and GEA Portugal/Spain does not have any experience with grazing and robots. There's little comunication between regions within GEA. Our sales rep/assistant is trying to set us up in someone from GEA Netherlands.

I do think one of the advantages of robots is that the cows present themselves to the robot voluntarily. If you are moving cows in batches for milking then maybe a rotary is a better option.

Also a concern is that you say GEA have no expertise on robots in your area. Milking robots are great but are not something you can fix with a hammer & screwdriver. They need a factory trained fitter, especially for the 1st year until you gain some on farm experience yourselves
just IMO .

 

[Farmer Keith]

If GEA have no experience in your area then you may be better off importing a red one? Probably going to need to be relatively tech savvy yourself if it’s going to work but by all accounts the red ones streets ahead so should need less farmer input?

 

[Nathan818]

One way of doing it

https://www.farminglife.com/business/upcoming-lely-grazing-open-day-in-strabane-4727550

 

[In the pit]

I’d think with 300 cows stick a rotary in and milk them in an hour morning and hour afternoon .be far easier than expecting 300 cows to come in to a robot .or six

 

[Durt Burd]

I believe there are some Gea robots on grazing farms in Ireland but not sure how many boxes. Roy Clarke is the name of the Gea rep in Ireland that would be able to give you details.
There might be some examples on the Facebook and Twitter pages of farms. Look up McKnight Farm Services who are a Gea dealer