archbarch Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 im interested to hear about dairy farming nowadays. The last time i milked cows was 23 years ago, alot has changed im sure mainly the amount of dairy farms that have gone. Whats the average herd size in the UK? and other countries. yields although this is probably in kilos now not litres? Parlour types/makes? housing setups Anyone still self feed silage? 3 times a day milking? Ive been looking at the robotic milkers out of interest, has anyone had anything to do with and how much are they? Cheers Simon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdeere6910 Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 The farm where I work milks around 200 cows twice a day milking, they milk through a 15 year old Gasgoine Mellotte 12/12 palour. The cows are still housed on straw but starting to go on to cubicles. Cows are fed with a Keenan mixer wagon and average yield is about 7500litres. I think a single robot alone costs around £200,000. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tractorbob Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 we milk 160 through a alfa laval 14X14 silage,maize,straw,straights through a keenan140 ..housed in cubicals on straw ,avariging about 30 litres a cow per day .. twice a day milking...not much changed in 15 years Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denis086 Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 we milk 120 alfa laval 14 unit crossover herringbone style around 25+ litres a day would be average and get fed 2kg of meal a day during the 2times we milk them big cubicle shed where we house dry cows milking cows and replacement heifer that are in calf cubicles are just fitted with rubber mats we feed them with a keenan 140 silage wheat/barley straw crimped oats bit of beet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue man Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 We used to milk around 60 fresians through a 12 unit milking parlour. During the summer they were spread out on 100 acres and during the winter divided into two slated sheds and fed silage and round bales. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
graham Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 i am involved with dairy farming enjoy it very much .i have been installing milking parlours and slurry handling systems on and off for the last fifeteen years .bse and foot and mouth being the times when had to find other work , cover a wide area all of kent and sussex and surrey ,the slurry handling is country wide so see many units, we have 1000 cow herds also one 45 cow herd ,some self feed silage still and get results ,we have some units that feed silage from the big harvestore silage towers , but most use some kind of forage box or mixer wagon , as for parlours we look after five rotary parlours one floats on water the others are driven round ,many herringbone parlours biggest milks 40 cows at a time smallest milks 8 cows , a few abreast parlours ,just installing a rapid exit parlour on a green feild site ,some milk three times a day and seem to be ok with that we do not get much time to work on the parlours then, we have taken a robot out and put the farmer back in to an abreast parlour then we put a herringbone back in for him about seven years ago ,in our area there are only two robot s milking cows i should think they will grow in popularity but there will always be some farmers that will keep to milking through a normal parlour Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unkelfergus Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 What was the reason for the robot removal Graham,.....just out of interest.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Tractor Twitcher Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 I took these photographs back in 2007 when I returned for an open day at the agricultural college I used to study at 5 years ago ( Askham Bryan ) near York of their rapid exit / robot setup that's used to milk around 170 Holsteins. Hope these are of interest, David. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archbarch Posted November 30, 2009 Author Share Posted November 30, 2009 thanks David looks a tidy setup was that just 1 robot or more. cheers for the replies the industry is still diverse as it used to be. i guess Holstein is the main breed does anyone know of any Guernsey or Dairy Shorthorn herds still about? I didnt think a robot would be that expensive! I can see them becoming more popular though. how much does a keenan feeder cost? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tractorman810 Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 really silly question coming now, but whats a robot system?? the way they allow the cattle in or the full works?? never really seen any milking like that, a few small dartmoor parlours while at work, but thats about it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denis086 Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 if you visit the lely website they probably have a video it milks the the cows and all it useds a beam to find the teats and put clusters on but i dont think theyre great because of what if you have a heifer with awkward small teats its not going to be able to put on a unit \ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Tractor Twitcher Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 thanks David looks a tidy setup was that just 1 robot or more. Your welcome Archbarch, just one robot installed I took the photographs around early evening and there was quite a few cows using it. Having never seen a robot operational before it was quite surreal seeing the arm from underneath perfectly locate every teat of each cow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farmermarshall Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 if you visit the lely website they probably have a video it milks the the cows and all it useds a beam to find the teats and put clusters on but i dont think theyre great because of what if you have a heifer with awkward small teats its not going to be able to put on a unit \ if i ever sell enough models i might have a robot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intey 434 Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 if you visit the lely website they probably have a video it milks the the cows and all it useds a beam to find the teats and put clusters on but i dont think theyre great because of what if you have a heifer with awkward small teats its not going to be able to put on a unit \ every cow has a tag and she is programed into the computer after she goes through the very first time, this means the robot can place where each teat is from then on in, even if she is a 3 titter the robot can read the tag and see she is a 3 titter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tractorman810 Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 what so theres effectivly no need for staff in there then??? every cow has a tag and she is programed into the computer after she goes through the very first time, this means the robot can place where each teat is from then on in, even if she is a 3 titter the robot can read the tag and see she is a 3 titter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
intey 434 Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 what so theres effectivly no need for staff in there then??? yea more or less, id say somone would be better there though. some farmers dont have a set routine...the cow just goes herself to get milked whenever she wants, suppose to cut down on cow stress as shes not carrying a full udder of milk, in turn more milk production! (back me up on this graham, your the expert ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farmermarshall Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 what so theres effectivly no need for staff in there then??? Sean we can work from bed via the laptop http://www.nind.co.nz/electrical.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tractorman810 Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 i would expect that from you mate ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D thats pretty amazing really we saw a automated system for sheep that sorted them into pens and thought that was good but this tops that Sean we can work from bed via the laptop http://www.nind.co.nz/electrical.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farmermarshall Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 i would expect that from you mate ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D thats pretty amazing really we saw a automated system for sheep that sorted them into pens and thought that was good but this tops that cheeky ................. really means more time can be spent on the management of the herd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tractorman810 Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 i know the farm had cattle way back when my mum was a little girl, so a long time back, and that was all hand milked, but they went when she was arround 10 so 1950ish, when they went full pig and arable, and up that way i only knew of one dairy farm nearby and thats long gone now and all wheat ect now sadly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farmermarshall Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 i have similiar to these scrapers fitted excellent job working as i speak http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.storthmachinery.co.uk/images/scraper-ram-box.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.storthmachinery.co.uk/automatic-slurry-scrapers.html&usg=__NRWPW7h2Vkgy3sMlledZ-vvfZO0=&h=393&w=472&sz=48&hl=en&start=1&itbs=1&tbnid=9ciY8dIr1cdr1M:&tbnh=107&tbnw=129&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dautomatic%2Bscrapers%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
graham Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 What was the reason for the robot removal Graham,.....just out of interest.. can you remember john the robots marketed by gasgoigne it was one of them and they called them all back as the technology was not right i think there was thirteen at the time in the uk ,we put the slurry handling system in at wynsdyke farms and they had nine lely robots there milking 500 cows but they sold up in september the farm changed hands i think they was happy with the robots , put a robot slurry scraper system in for a lady farmer at windsor she milks her jerseys with robots there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archbarch Posted November 30, 2009 Author Share Posted November 30, 2009 the video from Lely is very impressive!!!! http://www.lely.com/en/index.jsp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdeere6910 Posted December 1, 2009 Share Posted December 1, 2009 i guess Holstein is the main breed does anyone know of any Guernsey or Dairy Shorthorn herds still about? how much does a keenan feeder cost? A farm about 20 miles from us milks 200 dairy shorthorns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakescot Posted December 1, 2009 Share Posted December 1, 2009 some hellish big dairies round here, one guy has 2 robotic milkers, he likes them but can I just add, he told me no way does it save him or rather his dairyman from being there.....some cows with him have so far refused to use it.Any sick cow ie mastitis or lame or whatever needs attention......i am not certain but have a feeling the robot can flag up any with mastitis someone else might know.................Most are on TMR feeding through feeder/mixer wagons. Mainly cubicle housing with our wet westerly location, the haulage on straw adds considerably to that cost.The highest milkers are often on straw though.the cubicles are getting bigger,longer with the ever increasing cow size.All kinds of bedding on cubicles from lime on sand or the concrete to help reduce the mastitis and general bugs to mats and even double matting at one farm nearby.One guy has the broken rubber underlay. it`s a very different job from when dad had dairy cows here.........pedigree ayrshires yielding over 6000kgs back til june 1980.One big difference seems to be the short life the cows now have compared to what you would remember, dad`s used to average around 8 or 9 lactations............what is it today? an average of 2 or 3? The herds are getting bigger too, plenty getting over 500 and to my knowledge, 6 i think now,fairly locally, over 1000.Slurry is a problem with most locals now using the reel to get it done quickly in even wettish conditions.The grazing ground might be done already this winter, probably get done again...the silage ground is probably done too and set to get two more as well........no winter slurry ban for us yet but it could come. Holsteins predominate, still a few ayrshire this way, only know of one mainly friesian herd..............a fe going to jerseys , with one guy at Dumfries mainly outwintering them on kale and an odd other guy turning to extended grazing on a new zealand type system,mostly over in wigtownshire to our west. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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