Lely robot day

grazeaway

Anyone planning to go to the open day in clonakilty?

Won't be going but wouldnt mind going to see how it all works. Would be interesting to see it working in an Irish setting.

Fermec

im Hoping to Go Down Allright, Its The Grazing system that im Interestred in Seeing Working. They are Still Way too Expensive i Think.

Ltrvale

When and where is the one in clon on wont mind going for a look

20silkcut

Fermec wrote: »

im Hoping to Go Down Allright, Its The Grazing system that im Interestred in Seeing Working. They are Still Way too Expensive i Think.

Are they cheaper than a brand new milking parlour? Built from scratch.

grazeaway

Bradfield wrote: »

When and where is the one in clon on wont mind going for a look

Wednesday the 12th it's in the journo

Fermec

Ya, But You are still only Gettin g one Unit for 120 Plus k.

grazeaway

How did the day go?

What was the speil like?

Fermec

Didnt Get To Go Afterwards, Weather Too Fine, Alot of Catching up to do. Im Sure There Will be Plenty More open days Tho!

aonsceal

Ive been to a few of these open day over the past and they seem like an expensive toy. One machine is limited to 60 cows so expansion must be in large clusters to create any kind of economies of scale to justify the excessive price tag for additional machines. But in my opinion from what ive seen the packo fullwood robot is the only one that should merit consideration as it offers quicker cycle times.

Fermec

How do Mean Quicker Cycle Times?..

stop thelights

aonsceal wrote: »

Ive been to a few of these open day over the past and they seem like an expensive toy. One machine is limited to 60 cows so expansion must be in large clusters to create any kind of economies of scale to justify the excessive price tag for additional machines. But in my opinion from what ive seen the packo fullwood robot is the only one that should merit consideration as it offers quicker cycle times.

I've been to a good few open days as well and i wouldn't say there are an expensive toy. They work and work very well in Irish conditions. However the price at the moment is about 40,000 too much but fair play to lely there great sales people. 5 more sold in the munster area this year so i've heard.

I saw the one in moorepark, fullwood merlin 225 and its working very well. The big difference between them service. Fella in moorepark told me service for the year is €1100 while lely is gone from €2000, to €2500 a year. Milking 70 cows or more in moorepark. Price will have to come down when they eventually start selling them here.

Fermec

So They Dont Sell the Fullwood machine here so is that Correct? So am i Right in Saying that Lely have the Whole Irish Market to themselves so?.. Which would Explain the HIGH Price!:eek: Also as Far as i know the Fullwood is Pretty much a Copy of the Original Lely.

maxxuumman

Fermec wrote: »

So They Dont Sell the Fullwood machine here so is that Correct? So am i Right in Saying that Lely have the Whole Irish Market to themselves so?.. Which would Explain the HIGH Price!:eek: Also as Far as i know the Fullwood is Pretty much a Copy of the Original Lely.

No Fullwood do sell here. They just don't do as much PR work as Lely here. Fullwood is the biggest seller in the UK. Merlin is not a copy of Lely. Fullwood are around along time at milking parlours.
My vested interest is that I have a Fullwood parlour in for the last 10 yrs. super milking machine IMO.

Pacoa

How much are the fullwood robots costing?

aonsceal

Fermec wrote: »

How do Mean Quicker Cycle Times?..

The fullwood merlin goes through the cycle of putting on and removing the clusters faster than the lely machine .Also the merlin machine looks alot better engineered plus the packo machine has a nationwide dealer backup servicing their existing milking machines and bulk tanks.

Fermec

I Understand, Paco/Fullwood are in Kanturk, not that far away from me. All You Hear is Lely. They put alot of Money into PR & Open Days, & Big Adds in the Journal. I Assume Moorepark will have an open day on the Robat in the Near Future,. Why Arnt Fullwood Pushing their Robats as Much?...

grazeaway

Fermec wrote: »

I Understand, Paco/Fullwood are in Kanturk, not that far away from me. All You Hear is Lely. They put alot of Money into PR & Open Days, & Big Adds in the Journal. I Assume Moorepark will have an open day on the Robat in the Near Future,. Why Arnt Fullwood Pushing their Robats as Much?...

yeah seems a bit odd alright escpically as they have one up on lely in already having a service network in place. that said lely are a big company and maybe they dont want to take them on. still they could still piggy back on the awareness that lely are putting out. I know lely are making a big play on the grazing solution they have but i'm sur that same can be done on any unit that has automated drafting and idenification of cows.

F.D

aonsceal wrote: »

Ive been to a few of these open day over the past and they seem like an expensive toy. One machine is limited to 60 cows so expansion must be in large clusters to create any kind of economies of scale to justify the excessive price tag for additional machines. But in my opinion from what ive seen the packo fullwood robot is the only one that should merit consideration as it offers quicker cycle times.

I wouldn't agree about it been an expensive toy, it has a lot of features to monitor cows performance, health etc which you won't visually see as your not milking them! only milking 60 cows is not really correct either, they would be saying 60 high yielding cows at any one time, which in reality mean you could have up to 70 lower yielding and you also will be milking all year round so you are going to have fresh ones coming on in the autumn aswell possibly depending on your system

Fermec

So Realisticially How Much Do ye Think They Should be Charging for one unit? We must Remmember its only Equal to one Unit, I know it Comes with Drafting etc, & i Know its going 24hrs, But Anything over 100k is way Too Much Money if you Ask me. Especially if your expecting 60 to 70 cows to pay for it.

Tipp Man

No doubt these will catch on because there a crowd going now who talk a good game but wouldn't be caught dead in a milking parlour twice a day, 7 days a week, 300 days a year

I know of 2 lads who for the last 2 years have not milked an evening milking - not 1. I know of a couple of others who don't milk on weekends at all. So these guys are prime candidates for a robot

whelan1

Tipp Man wrote: »

No doubt these will catch on because there a crowd going now who talk a good game but wouldn't be caught dead in a milking parlour twice a day, 7 days a week, 300 days a year

I know of 2 lads who for the last 2 years have not milked an evening milking - not 1. I know of a couple of others who don't milk on weekends at all. So these guys are prime candidates for a robot

but doesnt there still have to be someone there to keep an eye on things, like a cow that doesnt go in or one that stays in it?

F.D

How many people are land locked and will only ever have 70 -80 cows i'd say a lot of farmers in ireland fall into that group, as for how much to pay? well if you had all that technology on a 10 unit parlour to milk the same 70 - 80 cows i wouldnt expect you would have much change out of 100 k either, and your still standing there milking them, i know i would rather spend 30 mins in the evening giving it a check over and checking any problem cows than killing yourself to be home at certain times to milk etc

grazeaway

whelan1 wrote: »

but doesnt there still have to be someone there to keep an eye on things, like a cow that doesnt go in or one that stays in it?

Nope, most of theses machines can be tied into your mobile phone and the machine is alarmed so if soemthing breaks or get damaged you can get a call or a text message. Also part of the daily checks is to look over the read out on the machine it'll tell how often a cow comes in so if one doent come in you'll know. Your still gonna be walking through them daily anyway.

as for the capacity beteen 60-70 seems to be what the machine does. like the lads say above if you and buy a 10 unit milking parlour for 70 cows with auto drafting and milk testing with all teh bells and whistles and then pay someone to milk them aswell then the robot could make more sense.

feelgoodinc27

What about mastitis, does it monitor cell count for each animal?

grazeaway

feelgoodinc27 wrote: »

What about mastitis, does it monitor cell count for each animal?

yeah, most have an inline sensor to pick up cell count and then have a diverter valve to send to milk to a seprate tank. Similar system for cows after calving can divert the milk for feeding to the calf. If you have a cow on antibotics it'll do the same when it reads her tag.

Here is a bit of speil from one of the makers

Milking like you have always known it
The ASTREA milks in a natural manner. The milking process can be sub-divided into 4 phases:

1.The pre-stimulation and cleaning phase of the udder.
2.The milking phase, with the option of animal-specific milking settings.
3.The removal phase, whereby the current milk flow determines whether removal can take place for each udder part and
4.the Milk pumping phase, whereby the milk is separated or transferred to the central milk cooling tank depending on its quality.
Smart Collect© and SENSE©
ASTREA 20.20 gives you a choice of options to separate the milk. Using the new SATURNUS management programme, any milk that fails to meet the required grade can be collected in one of the three milk containers. Dairy farmers may also separate the milk on an individual basis, of course. The Smart Collect system can be installed independently from the milking robot.

Conductivity and SENSE©
For detecting – and separating – milk containing blood or non-standard milk. This ultramodern system checks the color of the milk. Conductivity is measured for each part of the udder to guarantee the most reliable inspection of the milk quality and all-important udder health. Both sensors, apart from measuring the amount of milk using an ICAR-approved milk meter, are linked to the fully integrated SATURNUS Management System. [/I][/I]

Fermec

Fair Points Every one, My Contractor said to me during the Summer that The Robots are the way Forward, He Said nobody will be Milking Cows With Milking Machines in 50 years Time, ,. Im Still Not Convinced that Cows will come outa the Paddocks Themselves, I Know our Cows Wont Budge Unless they Hear The sound of the Jeep coming, we dont have a Sheep Dog:)

Dont be daft

Fermec wrote: »

Fair Points Every one, My Contractor said to me during the Summer that The Robots are the way Forward, He Said nobody will be Milking Cows With Milking Machines in 50 years Time, ,. Im Still Not Convinced that Cows will come outa the Paddocks Themselves, I Know our Cows Wont Budge Unless they Hear The sound of the Jeep coming, we dont have a Sheep Dog:)

A lad said to me a while ago "My son wont milk a cow the same way I wont pick a stone"

Its a fair point, the future's farmer wont be interested in doing whats essentially a completely brainless job. Now, whether the robot will fill that void or unskilled labourers will is the question.
I think for small scale operations that cant afford a labour unit the robot may stack up.

As for how to get them in, its all in the training. The cows exit the robot to a fresh paddock strip every time and learn that to get to new grass they need to go through the robot.
You need to be pretty organised with fences etc. to have a good system in place.

If someone put a gun to my head and I had to go into dairy tommorrow I'd be looking at the robot system first. Not saying it would be the way I'd go but I would definitely consider it.

Fermec

Putting a Gun to Your Head. You Make Dairying sound very bad:D, I Know its a 7 day a week, but its a hell of a Lot Easier that Spending 12 Hrs on a Tractor or more, Trust Me iv Done it. .. But Defently Exciting Times Ahead as Regards Milking Robots etc:)