Charryman
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Re: Lely Astronaut
Main negative aspect is the initial cost, IMO. Once the cows are trained, they are a great way of getting milk out of cows. We put them in because we were headed toward a 10,000kg average and wanted the cows to be milked 3x a day, mostly to relieve udder pressure & make them last longer. It's a job to get a daytime relief milker and couldn't see much hope of getting a night milker, a problem that can only get worse in time.
To that end, they have worked well with the robot cows currently averaging 3.2 milkings per day.
Main problem AFAIC, is that I personally am tied to the robots. Yes, I can disappear for a day, but someone that knows the system has to be available. That person has to have different skills to someone that just puts clusters on cows.... a mechanically minded stockman if you like, which can be hard to find.
Our maintenance costs are far higher than in the milking parlour. The reason being that we hardly ever spend a penny on the parlour and I can mend/bodge most parts of it myself. The robots HAVE to work, so are kept up together better, so far!
As to the cows, they are quieter and generally more content (as they are in every robotic herd I have visited). Mastitis and scc have remained much the same (not reduced as the salesmen say). Yields are up (especially heifers) & udders are tighter. They do not however work very well for old, lame or sick cows, as the cows will not bother to get up to be milked when their appetite is reduced. Perhaps those sorts shouldn't be around anyway? But we all have them.
Not sure how successful they would be on a grazing system? I am convinced that the cows visit the robots for food, rather than to be milked. At grass there would be less visits and lower output, I would suggest that a high fixed costs system needs to maximise it's output.
Repairs & engineer callouts haven't really been a problem. We will have been up and running for 2 years in November, including over a year of training 300 cows/heifers as they calved (prolonged as we only have 2 robots). I can count the number of callouts, other than routine maintenance visits, on one hand. I have managed to fix nearly everything else either by myself or with a telephone call to an engineer. Two of the callouts we did have, were purely to bring a small part that I didn't have in stock.
Night time phone calls are fairly infrequent, once through the initial training period. I was called out for a split milk tube last night (the usual reason and a 10 minute job, but usually at 3am  ), but that is the first time for 2 months. Having posted that, I will of course, get a call tonight! 
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Anyone wants a good Charollais ram try www.lowerye.com
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22/9/2008, 18:21
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bauldy
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Re: Lely Astronaut
Charryman ,that,s a good honest summary of your experience of robots. Some good things ,some bad!
Some people would have you believe that robots are perfect !
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23/9/2008, 6:51
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FiringOnAllFour
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Location: Northern Ireland
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Re: Lely Astronaut
Hello. Cyborg here. 
I couldn't disagree with anything Charryman said. We've been milking with them 5.5 years now.
Costs are certainly higher than we had with our old alfa parlour, for the same reasons as charryman put. To cover those, you need production. Thats why the biggest problem in my opinion is grazing. You will have to consider keeping them in for most of the time and grazing a few hours during the day so that none of them get very far off track. We grazed this summer for a few hours which I was very happy with. All cows had to pass throught the robots and be milked before leaving the building. That buys you time. I wouldn't, however, depend on them all coming back in on their own again. The first round of grazing is the hardest when the grass is clean and sweet and its a novelty. After that, they move a bit better. The whole point of them is that you dont have to waste time on the system - it should be self-perpetuating. Feeding cows into it is a no-no. I talk about grazing because it is phsycologically very important to the Ulster farmer and its a question farmers always ask.
Delaval are good, considering the horrendous task it must have been to design a machine to attach things to cows tits. But they aren't as good as lely. They'll get there some day, and I hope they will - lely need the competition.
As for being tied, that is very true. But to be honest, you can talk anyone (who can handle a spanner) over the phone how to diagnose and fix a problem. And the engineer is always a phonecall away.
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23/9/2008, 8:42
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will maxwell
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Re: Lely Astronaut
So, IF we decided to go for a robot, our cows would go from 2X a day to an average of 3.5X or so. Presumably then we'd see a slight increase in production? If so, would it be safe to say that the increased costs of maintainance would be offset by the extra income earned, combined with not having to pay an extra/relief milker?
The DeLaval unit looks good, and it comes from a company with a good track record in dairying, however Lely have the experience in robotics, and the network set-up. No doubt a bit of healthy competition would be good though!
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Farming is the oldest JOB in the world, too many people seem to have it confused with the oldest PROFESSION!
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23/9/2008, 12:08
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Charryman
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Re: Lely Astronaut
Our average of 3.2 milkings per day is based on only having the high yielders on the system and not grazing. Grazing will reduce numbers of visits and stale milkers will go in less often.
Probably FOAF's number of visits would be a better guide (with all cows milked on robots).
Our yield improved by 10-15% (as with 3x milking systems) in the first year. It dropped back a bit last winter, but then the silage was horrendous (M+2!). It is back up again now, in line with last year.
Whether the extra milk covers the extra maintenance costs and is worth the labour savings, will depend on what labour costs you (& is likely to cost you in the future) and what you think the extra margin on that additional milk is (will it be at 28ppl or 16ppl?). I'm sure someone could juggle figures to make it stack up, or not, depending on what they were selling. 
FOAF, interesting idea on the grazing. Thought about doing much the same myself this summer, what with it being such glorious weather & all). I was thinking it would increase overall intakes by giving a bit more variety in the ration, and reduce costs a bit. In a couple of hours they probably eat half what they would in a full day anyway. Do the cows come back in after a couple of hours, or do you spend much time chasing them back in?
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Anyone wants a good Charollais ram try www.lowerye.com
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23/9/2008, 13:13
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FiringOnAllFour
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Re: Lely Astronaut
Visits of 2.6-2.8 average for all cows in an all year calving herd wouldn't be far away. You will get better visitation the less quality you feed at the feed rail (i.e. no mixed ration). It slows them down, but cheapens the feed - a trade off, and a hard balance to find in my experience.
Basically, it took say four or five hours for all the cows to work their way through the machines and out the field. Then the house was empty, at which point you bring them all back in depending on how loaded the system is, and they fall straight back into routine. At subsequent grazing rotations and poorer weather, cows gradually began to return to the shed in search of something better. I just kept an eye on the list and brought them all back when things were slipping out of sync.
I'm not saying total grazing can't be done, but its not for me.
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23/9/2008, 18:30
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supersub
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Re: Lely Astronaut
quote:
MarkDay wrote:
How do De laval robots compare?I understand they are to be marketed in the UK now.
Any thoughts on Fullwood`s robots ?
I know they bought an earlier version of Lely`s and developed it from there.
Seems to be a number working in Cumbria
SS
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24/9/2008, 12:55
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