Scraping out… Robotics, automatic scrapers or tractors?

[Wesley]

the collector is good but needs routine maintenance, clean sensors/filters/wash off

Out of interest what filters & how often? Our little red friend gets a wash off now & again, normally after a wet, miserable day/night & the sh!t is already pre soaked. Give his eyes a rub when they’re grubby but thats as far as routine maintenance goes.

 

[TheRanger]

Cow care rope scrapers here, 2 x 350 cows sheds have them. Do not fit storth ones there garbage. rope ones dont freeze up like hyrdaulic ones and robotic scrapers are begging for maintenance like pappuller said.

Never had the hydraulic scrapers freeze here. The guy that fitted them said he had fitted loads in Russia over the years where it's much colder than here, and to use grade 10 hydraulic oil in the winter as it's thinner. Seems to work.

 

[PI Stsker]

Anything that needs doing on Christmas morning needs the KISS principal applying to it... (KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID)
You can’t get much more simple than a scraper on a tractor, rope scrapers are guaranteed to break on Christmas morning, robots the same.. worse case scenario with a scraper tractor is drag the (dead) tractor off and put another one on. It also means your casting your eye over the cows as you scrape etc, can pick up on heath issues earlier too.

 

[pappuller]

Out of interest what filters & how often? Our little red friend gets a wash off now & again, normally after a wet, miserable day/night & the sh!t is already pre soaked. Give his eyes a rub when they’re grubby but thats as far as routine maintenance goes.

Big vacuum filter under the round lid in the top, will lose suck if he gets blocked small water filter under bonnet on RHS

 

[vantage]

Anything that needs doing on Christmas morning needs the KISS principal applying to it... (KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID)
You can’t get much more simple than a scraper on a tractor, rope scrapers are guaranteed to break on Christmas morning, robots the same.. worse case scenario with a scraper tractor is drag the (dead) tractor off and put another one on. It also means your casting your eye over the cows as you scrape etc, can pick up on heath issues earlier too.

I think I’ll take my chances with a rope scraper!

 

[crashbox]

Whilst I can’t help but agree with your logic (we already have a 1.2t compact telehandler and box scraper) I also think that with auto scrapers cleaning the shed 6 times a day and a bot doing the busy bits up to 8 times a day there must be a benefit to be had there from cleaner cows less muck etc, just hard to quantify…

What's your cell count?

KISS, stick with the tractor for now IMO but make it really easy.

EDIT: Just read you are AYR housed. Well that changes things, but I'd be looking to get those cows out!

 

[PI Stsker]

I think I’ll take my chances with a rope scraper!

You’d better learn how to splice rope

 

[vantage]

You’d better learn how to splice rope

No need, never had to in the ten years the Harrymatic scrapers were running, rope was changed once as it was wearing. New ones have dyneema type rope which is even better.
Fannying around with an uncooperative tractor, changing a tractor, on your own , on a busy day, no chance, that’s something I definitely don’t want to do anymore!

 

[Scholsey]

If the cows are out the shed for milking etc I would stick with tractor.

 

[Grassman247]

You’d better learn how to splice rope

you just have a spare roll in the workshop. its that easy

 

[blackburndairyfarmer]

What's your cell count?

KISS, stick with the tractor for now IMO but make it really easy.

EDIT: Just read you are AYR housed. Well that changes things, but I'd be looking to get those cows out!

Cell count is 120, mastitis cases at 13 per 100 cows

 

[blackburndairyfarmer]

Cow care rope scrapers here, 2 x 350 cows sheds have them. Do not fit storth ones there garbage. rope ones dont freeze up like hyrdaulic ones and robotic scrapers are begging for maintenance like pappuller said.

We used to scrape for 7 hours a day. 1 man can do 1 350 cow shed on there own now. New farm one man can do beds and milk the cows in 2.5 hrs on there own if let down.

keep it simple and buy stuff that is reliable and doesnt need lots of maintenance

Do you know in particular what makes the Storth ones garbage??

 

[Milkcow365]

tractor scrape all the way, auto scrapers do have a place on smaller units where 1 man can milk.

 

[crashbox]

Cell count is 120, mastitis cases at 13 per 100 cows

So don't expect much improvement from a more frequent scraping regime, your results are already good

 

[George Mitchell]

Have a hydraulic system here, be about 22 years old. Replaced the nose seals on the hydraulic rams at about 20 years old, and have to replace the tripper on each lane every 4 or so years. Otherwise nothing to go wrong. Only hydraulic pipe that ever burst was one that wasn't fitted correctly and wore through as it was moving slightly, easy to rectify.

Hydraulic scrapers get a bad reputation on here, but in my experience it’s mostly unjustified.

Rope scrapers should be a bit more economical electricity wise as it’s doing 2 passes at once and isn’t ratcheting backwards and forwards.

Don’t see a robotic scraper making it past 10 years.

Exactly, we had dairymaster hydraulic ones in for almost 30 years, mechanically and hydraulically decent, but shite electrics, rewired by electro-mech and lasted until they were clapped the f**k out. 2x 90ft passages, 8x every day for 30 years isnt bad going. New storth ones last year for 14k the same price as the Schauer Enro robot we got the year before. Bit lighter than the dairymasters but 2 piece track was needed as the old ones had worn two grooves into the floor. Runs one lane at a time, better imo, and can park a defined no of strokes from the top.
Robot good for slats, passageway scraper is the only thing worth a damn for a passage, right tool for the job. I know which system will last longer

 

[Tex]

How much would it cost to build a cow shed for 100 cubicles? nothing too fancy, 8ft slatted tank, and feed passage up one side with steel bar as feed passage barrier?

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Put a slant on the barn and install a flush system. Automate it to your liking or just put manual valves in.

Less than ten minutes per day and almost no maintenance, low operating costs and spotless concrete

 

[rustyspring]

We still scrape with the tractor twice a day but put a robot in 3 years ago just to try and keep everything cleaner. It scrapes 4 passage ways with 160 cubicles, we have one run of 20 as well that it doesn't go in, with 160+ cows, it actually srapes eveything clean even though only designed for 90 cows. There is always alot of moaning if a full srape has to be done if it's not working and cut bedding use in half.

 

[vantage]

Put a slant on the barn and install a flush system. Automate it to your liking or just put manual valves in.

Less than ten minutes per day and almost no maintenance, low operating costs and spotless concrete

They work well on a greenfield site, visited a farm with 650 cows in the shed, pull of a lever, all passages spotless in a few minutes! Unfortunately not suitable for units near houses/ housing because of the smell created, one large unit near Cardiff had to stop because of complaints, I believe.

 

[Blue.]

Had chain scrapers here for 25 years,spent more time dealing with the slurry sat on the slats than it did to scrape with a tractor,so never replaced them,if I had my time again I’d have a slatted channel full length of each passageway just in the centre so whatever method of scraping you use you wouldn’t get a wave of slurry.