Last night we had a fantastic evening on a farm treasure tramp.
Lots of beautiful scenery but everyone was rather fascinated by the robot milkers.
Four automatic robot milkers costing up to £100,000 each.
The new way to be a dairy farmer & definitely the way we would have gone if we had still been milking.
The life line of the family farm when you have to rely on just family staff....although very expensive they give you flexibility & a chance of some time off!
Also a big advantage is you can sell them on second hand if you give up milking whereas with a fixed milking parlour your investment is distinctly dodgy!
You can see on the first photo the red sensors finding the exact spot the cows teats are, the clusters attach & at the end the teats are sprayed with a teat spray for hygiene.
The cows have a transponder on their legs so the machine knows which cow is in.....if they come in too often the gates won't open!
All the milk yield & any details are relayed to a computer in the office for records.
If the robot breaks down it will even call out the mechanic!
WOW......technology is awesome and I keep wondering what will things be like in another decade?
I'm fairly sure Mackies (as in Ice Cream) who farm just a few miles away from us have had automatic robot milkers for a few years now and the cows just come in when they feel they need milking!
But the memory of my aunts milking the cows in Breasclete on the Western Isles sprang to mind while on this thread.......and the taste of the fresh milk and cream and crowdie.........were quite unforgettable!
This is amazing! A brilliant development which must ransform lives. I went to WEA lectures last year and the subject was agricultural developments in farming and we saw pictures of these but I had no idea how much they cost!
@annemary If you had to milk cows twice a day for 365 days a year Anne Mary I know you would say technological advancement!! A job most farmers love but no let up & the young ones don't want to be so tied so we have to embrace the modern way even though will be paying for it for years to come!!
The friends we went with who are still milking are in the throes of putting three of these robots in.....September time will be the date...quite a business as you can imagine getting the cows used to this system...some hard times ahead I think!! They farm around 150 cows so not as big as some farms. the bigger farms tend to have very large rotary parlours with a few staff so don't tend to go down the robot route. A very big commitment Jane but our friends have a son ken on milking so have to look to his future.
We have a lot of robotic milkers in our area. Some farmers love them, and others hate them.
Those that hate them have gone to huge, efficient milking parlours, some of which rotate so the cow hops on, and by the time she goes all the way around, she is done and hops off on her own. They too are a marvel in technology.
Whatever works for each farm.
Thanks for the info and picture. So neat to see how other farms do it.
@farmreporter We have these big rotary milkers too but they tend to be on big farms with plenty of staff ...usually Polish. The rotary parlour is very popular in NZ too. our granddaughter milks in one in South Island.
herringbone parlours are the most popular here I would say & the most common but as they get that they need to be replaced most family farms are looking at all options including robots. Thank you for telling me about your system.
I'm fairly sure Mackies (as in Ice Cream) who farm just a few miles away from us have had automatic robot milkers for a few years now and the cows just come in when they feel they need milking!
But the memory of my aunts milking the cows in Breasclete on the Western Isles sprang to mind while on this thread.......and the taste of the fresh milk and cream and crowdie.........were quite unforgettable!
Those that hate them have gone to huge, efficient milking parlours, some of which rotate so the cow hops on, and by the time she goes all the way around, she is done and hops off on her own. They too are a marvel in technology.
Whatever works for each farm.
Thanks for the info and picture. So neat to see how other farms do it.
herringbone parlours are the most popular here I would say & the most common but as they get that they need to be replaced most family farms are looking at all options including robots. Thank you for telling me about your system.