Dairy Chitchat 3

Mooooo wrote: »

Doing business in South America and China isn't as straight forward. Didn't carbery, or it's synergy subsidiary, also pull out of a joint venture in Brazil?

Was given advise years ago (that we should have listened to)...

Small boats should stay close to shore.....

trixi2011 wrote: »

Quite a few cows here by him if he is the lic gandeur bigger than most of our cows but milk very well and are lasting in large herd. would into 4th lactation now

Totally agree. We used him widely here and thrilled with his daughters. They are the true invisible cows.

Good article on a farm that took out their 2 robots and put in a 16 unit milking parlour instead in the journal

steer wrote: »

What were the reasons?

Needed a good bit of labour and also needed to update the existing robots. Had trouble getting cows to go to the robots etc

White Clover wrote: »

What type of cow?

At football will re read it when I get home...

whelan2 wrote: »

Needed a good bit of labour and also needed to update the existing robots. Had trouble getting cows to go to the robots etc

Interesting. I guess they are not for everyone. Why would they need to update existing robots? There are people still using the original lely robots! One man for every two robots is a good rule of thumb I heard. When grazing with robots I found it takes time to get to forecast what will happen over a 24 hour period taking in weather, where the bulk of cows are at, grass levels in different blocks.

einn32 wrote: »

cosatron wrote: »

Bavanmore Holsteins. Check him out on Twitter. The robot was a pure disaster going by his comments and photos. One photo shows the cup missing the teat and just attached to the udder.

What's wrong with that?? It missed a test on a live animal who most likely moved at the last second on cupping up. No milk flow. Robot will attempt to attach again. If there is a cupping up issue its quickly found through the computer. Operator needs to be constantly looking at the stats.

Do people think robots are perfect! They're not! They will wreck your head some days. The next day you think they're great!

Are u satisfied with your robot?

cosatron wrote: »

Are u satisfied with your robot?

I only work on a robotic farm but most days I don't mind working with them. There can be some stupid issues like a pipe comes off etc. Most of the alarms can be reset on your phone. Some days the alarms can drive you nuts but I find doing your daily checks and cleaning them saves a lot of hassle. If I owned a robot I would definitely take more time off personally! Easy to say stuff though when I don't see the cost of running them and repair bills.

I can see why you would throw them out if they kept breaking down and alarming 24 hours a day. Thing is you're really have to learn how to troubleshoot fix as many issues yourself.

Mooooo wrote: »

The whole idea is that they'll save on labour, 2 robots to 1 man is what 140 cow's max, not exactly saving much?

Robots don't save labour. They just change the way you work. It's a sales pitch. I reckon over a year you probably work just as much when you take into account alarms, setting up fresh cowsetc. But I could be wrong. I've never seen a comparison done?

Two robots milking 140 cows is a real strain I think. The less cows per robot the better. But then who's going to put in three robots for 140 cows. Given milk price you're going to push it to the limit.

einn32 wrote: »

Mooooo wrote: »

The whole idea is that they'll save on labour, 2 robots to 1 man is what 140 cow's max, not exactly saving much?

Robots don't save labour. They just change the way you work. It's a sales pitch. I reckon over a year you probably work just as much when you take into account alarms, setting up fresh cowsetc. But I could be wrong. I've never seen a comparison done?

Two robots milking 140 cows is a real strain I think. The less cows per robot the better. But then who's going to put in three robots for 140 cows. Given milk price you're going to push it to the limit.

I know a chap with 2 lelys in for 3 or 4yrs now, he only takes holidays while the cows are dry in the winter. He would be very particular about the abc allocates and getting the areas perfect for good clean outs. When I saw that level of detail I knew robots would offer me very little advantage, I like being able to get in the milker for 2 or 3 milkings while I'm gone and tell them the paddocks to sent cows to or fences to move etc

Mortelaro wrote: »

Isn't there a company in Enniscorthy renting Lely astronaut gear for small enough money on a per day rate?
Can't recall the exact figure but it wasn't too far off the cost of a labour unit for two of them

(I've no interest in robots myself, I'd
Be better off researching retirement options at this stage in my career )

My view on this anyway is,if it's that good ,everyone would have them

Tams and access to easy finance is what’s driving the robot sales here, combined with builders in short supply to go the conventional route, you’d easily get the finance on 300k plus of Lely gear within a week, try get that of a bank and you’d be lucky to get approval in 6 months and have to part with the deeds of a nice chunk of ground to boot

What is the lifespan of a robot. ?

jaymla627 wrote: »

Tams and access to easy finance is what’s driving the robot sales here, combined with builders in short supply to go the conventional route, you’d easily get the finance on 300k plus of Lely gear within a week, try get that of a bank and you’d be lucky to get approval in 6 months and have to part with the deeds of a nice chunk of ground to boot

There's land for sale beside me and I've contemplated taking on that much debt but it's too much for me. The return isn't in it for the labour. Maybe im just too risk averse.

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

It's more for the next generation that you buy the land for.

Ya and for your own pride maybe. It's gone very expensive compared to the 80's and 90's. It's too hard to get the return off of it. Hard to know if the next generation will be farming at all. Mine are only toddlers

straight wrote: »

Ya and for your own pride maybe. It's gone very expensive compared to the 80's and 90's. It's too hard to get the return off of it. Hard to know if the next generation will be farming at all. Mine are only toddlers

Same, 70 acres at home for sale right beside our own 100, could walk cows to it but just can’t justify it, maybe I’m too much of a pessimist