Milking Robot

Pwall

Hi, i am looking for information on the robot. has anyone a robot in place on a small block of land, and is both grazing and buffer feeding? if so how is it working? also please advise on all problems as benefits are easy to see? thanks

frazzledhome

Is this what we're all waiting for??
https://twitter.com/farmersweekly/status/613724649734709248

Greengrass1

frazzledhome wrote: »

Is this what we're all waiting for??
https://twitter.com/farmersweekly/status/613724649734709248

At 100k a stall it'll do for my hobby farm when I win the euromillions

ted_182

Greengrass1 wrote:

At 100k a stall it'll do for my hobby farm when I win the euromillions

Think he means its a lot cheaper than a single robot that costs 100k

Will_mck

I know of two farmers who put in robots in the last 9 months, one of them purchased several. Both farms have been sold since. Big financial move for any man, needa do the sums thoroughly before taking the plunge

F.D

Will_mck wrote: »

I know of two farmers who put in robots in the last 9 months, one of them purchased several. Both farms have been sold since. Big financial move for any man, needa do the sums thoroughly before taking the plunge

Would this have been in Northern Ireland where they house the cows AYR and have high input costs ?

Will_mck

Yup this was in Northern Ireland and they're in all year so I suppose it would be a high input business. I've a friend who installs them up there and he hears of bank repossessions on a monthly basis. I suppose if cows were let out to grass half the year it might be a different ball game all together

grazeaway

Will_mck wrote: »

Yup this was in Northern Ireland and they're in all year so I suppose it would be a high input business. I've a friend who installs them up there and he hears of bank repossessions on a monthly basis. I suppose if cows were let out to grass half the year it might be a different ball game all together

It depends on your set up. Over here the majority of herds are housed year round, however under swedish law cows have to be outside for part of the summer months. The majority of farmers say that they lose money when the cows are out as their output tends to drop off. When they are indoors the output is usually very steady.

Will_mck

ah that's interesting, that seems counter intuitive but if that's what happens then that's what happens. You'd think cows would be healthier and happier outdoors

Pacoa

ah that's interesting, that seems counter intuitive but if that's what happens then that's what happens. You'd think cows would be healthier and happier outdoors

Depends on what they're put out on. If we kept cows in till june and then left them out onto stemmy grass i'd say they'd go down in yield too.

Pacoa

https://youtu.be/KnCEOEzW134?t=345

Greengrass1

https://youtu.be/A_FdjT_Ro6
have a listen to what sean o donnel says about robots

Sam Kade

Greengrass1 wrote: »

https://youtu.be/A_FdjT_Ro6
have a listen to what sean o donnel says about robots

Video doesn't exist

Greengrass1

https://youtu.be/A_FdjT_Ro6o

Maybe this one might

Sam Kade

Seeing that a robot can only handle 60 cows wouldn't anyone be better of putting in an oversized milking parlour with an auto washer if they didn't want to spend time milking cows? It would work out a lot cheaper.

Milked out

There's an open day in ballinhassig thurs week. 2 robots 140 cows planning on putting in a third. Card said hopes to get to himself plus 1 labour unit doing 40 hr weeks

mahoney_j

If I ever decided on a second herd on my outside block it'd def be a milking robot .i have the land for 65/70 cows.roads and water are in ,power supply already there all I need is a structure for robot ,topless cubicles feed space,calving structure and tank .get dedicated help for it at calving and after that if manage ,robot drafts cows for Ai or o
If sick throw a look in twice a day much prefer itv than second parlour which would require a full time labour unit

visatorro

very good presentation I thought, liked the way he got stuck into sale pitches and wasn't afraid to tell teagasc one of there programmes was out dated. not a complete dismissal of what teagasc are trying to do but an out view of what they should be doing

Greengrass1

visatorro wrote: »

very good presentation I thought, liked the way he got stuck into sale pitches and wasn't afraid to tell teagasc one of there programmes was out dated. not a complete dismissal of what teagasc are trying to do but an out view of what they should be doing

Watched all them videos last night. Vert good I thought.
nice to get 11 wks traveling the world too

Milked out

Greengrass1 wrote: »

https://youtu.be/A_FdjT_Ro6o

Maybe this one might

Good concise presentation

Timmaay

Milked out wrote: »

Good concise presentation

Talking about robots and a lot of sales people influence, I know of one person who invested in 2 robots about 2yrs ago, he had some sort of 3 year servicing/callout deal done, and on renegotiating that, he has discovered that the cost of this will increase substantially moving forward, as well at this several items on the robot have a short enough working lifespan and need replacing every 3 or 4 years. He still appeared very happy with the robots but did say straight out this was an increased cost that was never mentioned the day he was buying the robot.

F.D

What would the cost of Servicing a 14 unit parlour and the chemical costs for 1 year versus a milking robot ?

Dawggone

mahoney_j wrote: »

If I ever decided on a second herd on my outside block it'd def be a milking robot .i have the land for 65/70 cows.roads and water are in ,power supply already there all I need is a structure for robot ,topless cubicles feed space,calving structure and tank .get dedicated help for it at calving and after that if manage ,robot drafts cows for Ai or o
If sick throw a look in twice a day much prefer itv than second parlour which would require a full time labour unit

Word of caution guys...the country is packed with robots here as the French saw bots as an answer to the labour problem.
Banks were horsing out money to buy them. Now they can't be traded second hand because of a glut. So to get rid of bots you now need to sell the farm.

Scc seems to be a large problem with them. The fine for being over 400k scc is 18cpl...
Also for high yielding cows one robot will only handle 40 to 45 cows. Methinks a few Mexicans would be cheaper...:)

jaymla627

F.D wrote: »

What would the cost of Servicing a 14 unit parlour and the chemical costs for 1 year versus a milking robot ?

Very basic 14 unit here, average cost the past two years to service is 700 a year which includes replacement of rubber ware once a year and a yearly check - up by parlour guy for pulsation/vaccum etc, chemical costs including teat spray work out at 1200 a year all in and electric costs including milk cooling work out at around .006 cent a litre....
Total overall cost per year putting through 80 cows doing say a total output of 500,000 litres is bang on a cent a litre

mahoney_j

F.D wrote: »

What would the cost of Servicing a 14 unit parlour and the chemical costs for 1 year versus a milking robot ?

14 units with gizmos similar to robot 1500 just for service ,robots gives things like individual 1/4 milking ,scc ,solids which mine didn't .top service with robot costs circa 6 k per year

F.D

mahoney_j wrote: »

14 units with gizmos similar to robot 1500 just for service ,robots gives things like individual 1/4 milking ,scc ,solids which mine didn't .top service with robot costs circa 6 k per year

jaymla627 wrote: »

Very basic 14 unit here, average cost the past two years to service is 700 a year which includes replacement of rubber ware once a year and a yearly check - up by parlour guy for pulsation/vaccum etc, chemical costs including teat spray work out at 1200 a year all in and electric costs including milk cooling work out at around .006 cent a litre....
Total overall cost per year putting through 80 cows doing say a total output of 500,000 litres is bang on a cent a litre

Thanks Guys i think chemical costs are similar to the parlour from what i hear but as mentioned the service cost/ contracts seem to be where there can be big difference
i know the extra info from the robot with scc etc is an advantage but i suppose you can hire in someone to milk record to get similar info but not daily

Milked out

Dawggone wrote: »

Word of caution guys...the country is packed with robots here as the French saw bots as an answer to the labour problem.
Banks were horsing out money to buy them. Now they can't be traded second hand because of a glut. So to get rid of bots you now need to sell the farm.

Scc seems to be a large problem with them. The fine for being over 400k scc is 18cpl...
Also for high yielding cows one robot will only handle 40 to 45 cows. Methinks a few Mexicans would be cheaper...:)

Surprised at scc given the speil the crowd over here go on about. During winter here when cows are brought to parlour I scrape and lime cubicles while they are out the way, would cows being always in the shed mean cubicles aren't cleaning properly or are the robots not milking correctly

jaymla627

Milked out wrote: »

Surprised at scc given the speil the crowd over here go on about. During winter here when cows are brought to parlour I scrape and lime cubicles while they are out the way, would cows being always in the shed mean cubicles aren't cleaning properly or are the robots not milking correctly

Biggest threat would be after milking when teat canals are open I'd reckon and then lying in dirtied bed, I say robots probably work away perfectly re cell count where their is no cell count issues to start off with but on farms where their are issues and the bugs are in the environment you run into problems

blackdog1

mahoney_j wrote: »

14 units with gizmos similar to robot 1500 just for service ,robots gives things like individual 1/4 milking ,scc ,solids which mine didn't .top service with robot costs circa 6 k per year

They also use electronic collars which will have a 5 yr guarantee but after that you'll be looking at a 20% replacement rate @100 a collar.i ts a heatime collar.

visatorro

F.D wrote:

What would the cost of Servicing a 14 unit parlour and the chemical costs for 1 year versus a milking robot ?

robot worked out around 2700. that's service and chemicals. there's a charge per kilo of milk produced included in that. I know they don't supply teat dip so I forget if I factored that in or not. that's producing 360k if I remember correctly

Pacoa

There's an open day in ballinhassig thurs week. 2 robots 140 cows planning on putting in a third. Card said hopes to get to himself plus 1 labour unit doing 40 hr weeks

Should be a good day out, new shed and all to see there.

Milked out

Pacoa wrote: »

Should be a good day out, new shed and all to see there.

Yeah card came in post yday, would like to go but have a family do same day. Won't be doing robots here but would be interesting to see it. Dont know the farmer but Know a lad that did some concrete work there andhe said he's a fella that would prob let you have a look around any time.

Pacoa

have a listen to what sean o donnel says about robots

totaly agree with him on the moorepark robot, it's not fit for purpose. Seems to be an experiment to see how little labour you can put into it rather than trying to maximise profit. Wonder how it's figures look this year with milk at 28 cent.

Timmaay

visatorro wrote: »

robot worked out around 2700. that's service and chemicals. there's a charge per kilo of milk produced included in that. I know they don't supply teat dip so I forget if I factored that in or not. that's producing 360k if I remember correctly

How much for 2?

visatorro

don't know, there's a set price for the kg of milk. you can do a deal apparently if you allow open days. so the service contract can be different.

Dawggone

Milked out wrote: »

Surprised at scc given the speil the crowd over here go on about. During winter here when cows are brought to parlour I scrape and lime cubicles while they are out the way, would cows being always in the shed mean cubicles aren't cleaning properly or are the robots not milking correctly

The minute the bots go in the scc doubles. Now it's a lot easier to control scc in wintertime Ireland than high summer France.
When I started here scc was about 250 to 300. Now it's always sub 150. Consistently in the top 1% of suppliers for scc. (I wish I could say that about solids).

Milked out

Dawggone wrote: »

The minute the bots go in the scc doubles. Now it's a lot easier to control scc in wintertime Ireland than high summer France.
When I started here scc was about 250 to 300. Now it's always sub 150. Consistently in the top 1% of suppliers for scc. (I wish I could say that about solids).

Excellent going dawg giving you're ayr calving and some girls with long lactations. Culling offenders, breeding against it, or good staff in the pit and shed? All three and more

Dawggone

Milked out wrote: »

Excellent going dawg giving you're ayr calving and some girls with long lactations. Culling offenders, breeding against it, or good staff in the pit and shed? All three and more

Hygiene and culling.

Fox999

Is there much of a market for second hand robots and how much is one in good condition making on average?

Timmaay

Fox999 wrote: »

Is there much of a market for second hand robots and how much is one in good condition making on average?

20 to 40k is a rough off the top of my head figure for one straight out of the farm. How much you'd have to spend to get it functional on your own farm a totally lottery, I'm not going to estimate, it depends on how old the robot is also. Lely will sell you a 2nd hand ready to go robot, but the price seemed to be well off the mark, a new one with the grant was a much better bet.

blackdog1

Dawggone wrote: »

The minute the bots go in the scc doubles. Now it's a lot easier to control scc in wintertime Ireland than high summer France.
When I started here scc was about 250 to 300. Now it's always sub 150. Consistently in the top 1% of suppliers for scc. (I wish I could say that about solids).

Get some normandy cows they'll sort your solids out....

grazeaway

Was home for a few days and picked "de paper" when I was heading home today for the trip home. Spotted this the farm exam and it made interesting reading. Sums up what I reckon the debate is. Will be interesting to see data for the time savings but more interesting would be the cost data for the water, esb and other costs.

We are still using the old 6unit milker but will be looking to up grade in the next year or two. Lucky enough there are plenty of robots round here so it's not a completely new concept round here. The thing we will be looking at is including grazing to the system. We don't have long a grazing season here but we still have a good 6 months and as the growing season days are long we do grow enough grass. We want to reduce the amount if silage we use.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/farming/news/promise-of-36-less-work-for-ams-dairy-farmers-342764.html

Timmaay

Why is your grazing season limited to 6months?

grazeaway

Timmaay wrote: »

Why is your grazing season limited to 6months?

We are in the south of Sweden. While not as cold as the middle or North we do have a nice bit if snow in winter and spring was very wet this year so by the time the snow has melted and the ground thawed out it was mid may. By the time October comes the frost is getting heavy.

johnny122

It seems robots increase cost of production by 3cents a litre from what I'm reading of the research. Would have to think hard about it in this climate

grazeaway wrote: »

Was home for a few days and picked "de paper" when I was heading home today for the trip home. Spotted this the farm exam and it made interesting reading. Sums up what I reckon the debate is. Will be interesting to see data for the time savings but more interesting would be the cost data for the water, esb and other costs.

We are still using the old 6unit milker buut will be looking to up grade in the next year or two. Lucky enough there are plenty of robots round here so it's not a completely new concept round here. The thing we will be looking at is including grazing to the system. We don't have long a grazing season here but we still have a good 6 months and as the growing season days are long we do grow enough grass. We want to reduce the amount if silage we use.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/farming/news/promise-of-36-less-work-for-ams-dairy-farmers-342764.html

Milked out

Anyone go to ballinhassig to the open day?

Pacoa

I was at the open day today and the only thing that disappointed me was I couldn't find where he kept his money tree

Milked out

Pacoa wrote: »

I was at the open day today and the only thing that disappointed me was I couldn't find where he kept his money tree

Was thinking that with new shed plus robots. Any questions fielded to test the lely crowd or anything interesting? Ai man here sells semen there says he is happy with thim but they suit his circumstances also, they have to fit the place bang on really in terms of cow numbers layout etc id say

Greengrass1

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/robotic-milking-will-allow-cork-farm-expand-by-40/
he shouldn't have had to buy a robot to grow mire grass

Sam Kade

Greengrass1 wrote: »

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/robotic-milking-will-allow-cork-farm-expand-by-40/
he shouldn't have had to buy a robot to grow mire grass

While you're busy milking he's checking his grass as if you have no time for grass management unless you have a robot.

Timmaay

He "seemed" to be growing more grass also.....