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FARM PEOPLE » David & Glenys McConnell
NZ Dairy
Milking robots way of the future Richard Loader Leaping into the future after 30 years milking cows the traditional way, Waikato farmers David and Glenys McConnell decided to entrust milking to a team of four Lely Astronaut robots. That was 2012, and they have never looked back. “There’s no human interaction, no pushing or dogs barking, we get a lot less lameness and mastitis and the cows produce a lot more,” says David. “There’s a 15 – 20% increase in production just because of the robots.” Originally farming in Northland and the Waikato before crossing the great divide to Southland in 1996 to milk 600 cows, David awoke one day looking for a new challenge. He’d seen a grass based, robotic milking system in operation in the South Island and when a 72ha dairy unit in Ruakura, near Hamilton, came available he seized the moment and the challenge. “The farm had a 20-aside herringbone shed which we gutted, put the pit in and installed the robots. There was no going back once we did that,” says David. He says that the first year of transition to the robots was quite demanding learning the system and training the cows. “Most of the cows take 2 – 5 days to learn to use the robots and, because milking is voluntary and feed driven, you have to train your first 30 cows to go to the robots to be milked. It took about four weeks for the first 30 to start flowing in and out of the robots by themselves.” Once the first 30 got into the swing of things, the others started to follow and the learning process got a lot quicker. Structured into four grazing zones (A, B, C & D), including a cow barn, the cows, wearing transponders, get drawn through the zones several times in any given 24-hour period looking for food spending up to 5 hours in each zone. Reaching a gate between zones, the computer recognises whether a cow has been milked within a 5 – 12 hour period, either sending her to the robot for milking or to a different grazing zone, including the cow barn where she may graze for up to an 8-hour period. “The robots operate 24 hours a day continuously which means that a cow will get voluntarily milked at any time of day or night a minimum of twice and up to four times within a 24 hour period,” says David. “It means that rather than carrying 30kgs of milk around, she may only be carrying 15kgs, which is a lot better on their udders.” Peak milking 240 cows in a split calving system of 120/90 with a few carry overs, the
Waikato farmers David and Glenys McConnell decided to entrust milking to a team of four Lely Astronaut robotic milking systems, similar to this one.
robots work tirelessly all year round providing good cash flow and taking advantage of the higher winter premium. Currently doing 620kgMS/per cow and hoping to reach 630kgMS by the end of the season, David is aiming for 700kgMS which he believes is achievable due to better breeding, better feed and much less stress. The 2520sqm cow barn forms an integral part of David’s ‘system five’ operation with all inputs being fed there and the cows voluntarily choosing to enter looking for shade in the summer. It’s also invaluable during the winter months when pasture is vulnerable to pugging damage. “I have a lot of tours coming through the farm here and they see my cows in the cow barn happy as Larry, eating, having their backs brushed and it’s 8 degrees cooler than outside, “ says David. “If you are a dairy farmer and want production you have to make them comfortable. The cow barn and the robots are significant contributors to that.”
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“I have a lot of tours coming through the farm here and they see my cows in the cow barn happy as Larry, eating, having their backs brushed and it’s 8 degrees cooler than outside.”
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