AB Grazing with Lely
Rhosfawr.Aberystwyth
Gerallt Woolley and his family farm at Rhosfawr, just south of Aberystwyth.In 2015 they were at a crossroads, as their parlour was reaching the end of its life but they were not convinced that robots were the right option for them.
We have Friesian Holstein cows”, explains Gerallt,” and I have always been a big believer in grazing, so robots didn’t seem like an option, as I had only seen them working with housed systems.”
However, when he was offered a trip to Ireland with Lely, to see their robots working with grazing, he took the opportunity and returned full of enthusiasm in the knowledge that this could work successfully for his heard of 65 cows.
A4 retro fitted in to cubicle building
Gerallt went ahead and ordered an A4 in the spring of 2015 and began the building work with a view to starting up in the autumn. The existing cubicle shed just required an additional bay to house the robot, a segregation pen and an office, while the bulk tank could remain in the existing dairy. Lastly a grazing gate installation was planned on the yard to enable AB grazing and in this way the building costs were kept to a minimum.
A4 Specification
- Collar ID including heat detection and rumination
- Quarter conductivity
- Cell count analysis
- Constituent analysis
Grazing
Start up took place in November that year, which gave the cows 5 months to get used to the robots before turnout the following spring.
“Initially, the cows weren’t too keen on going through the grazing gate”, explains Gerallt and so we had to push them through, but within a few weeks they got the hang of it”.
Over 10 years the cows have got better at travelling to the grazing blocks and back to the robots for milking. The grazing gate changes at 7am for access to the day paddock and then at 3pm to access the night paddock, where they walk up to 500 metres.
The herd now averages an impressive 3.4 visits in 24 hours on their AB system, averaging 30 litres per cow/day, with up to 8kg of concentrates a day and no buffer feed. So, its a simple but very effective system with minimum herd management input.