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Evelyn and I have been farming
with Lely Milking Robots for six years, and looking back it has been an amazing
journey. I can reassure all Australian dairy farmers that the
technology works, and infact works so well that I believe no farm owner
or worker could better the performance of the machine in milking a herd. We have many visitors to our farm including a lot of ex-dairy farmers, and the question is always the same, "why are you still the only Australian farmers using this technology when it appears to be so fantastic?" I ask myself that question every morning on stating the working day at 8am. |
We have decided to include this segment on our web site to help dairy farmers gain the knowledge required to make informed judgments on the implementation of this fantastic technology into the Australian Dairy Industry. Max Warren.
CONTENTS.
| Latest News......Click Here. | When is the right time to go Robotic Milking? Click Here. |
| Dairy Australia Levy Vote.. Maffra meeting. Click Here. | Free cow flow on pasture..........latest research. Click Here. |
| Education - promoting the Dairy Industry to students. Click Here. | |
Macalister Irrigation District experiencing drought or water theft?
My memory of seasons growing up on the MID, irrigation water provided to our farm mostly came from the Thomson River. Inflows to the Thomson catchment have reduced, but that is not the problem for the MID, the water diverted to Melbourne is the problem. Check out the graph on the left, is this the cause of our current problems? I think so, and we were conned into believing back in the early 60's that the Thomson Dam was going to be great for farmers of the MID. The reality is, diverting the water to Melbourne has secured the future of the city and demolished the land values in the MID, turning a highly productive area into a marginal farming region, subject to an uncertain future. The history of the MID is well documented on Southern Rural Water web site, however their account fails to explain the impact of the Thomson Dam and water diversion to Melbourne is having on the area and the ability to remain a major producer of milk. Max. |
Maffra meeting 15th Feb at 11:00am, Macalister Research Farm. Detailed information about the levy vote is available online.
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Education. With the increased pressure for water resources and the environmental issues facing us today it is important that we in the dairy industry stay in contact with the wider community. Our story about sustainable food production, not only for Australians but also the export market, needs to be articulated to the community, and what better way that through school children. Our farm caters for school group excursions, showcasing the latest technology and our interpretive centre has displays portraying the history of the industry in Central Gippsland. Evelyn, Check out our Visitor Page. |
 Click to see. |
Free cow flow on pasture based system.
In the European free stall barn milking systems there is currently research data supporting "free cow traffic". The notion that cows are free to navigate their way around freely as opposed to being guided or forced results in reduced infrastructure costs, increased milk production, less mastitis and reduced labour costs.
In Australia we have a true "free cow traffic" system where cows move between pasture and dairy based on incentives rather than enforcement. Lely have published research results showing that free cow traffic combined with automatic milking systems reduces mastitis, increases milk production, improves cow health, reduces cow wait time at robots, aids low-ranked heifers to reach production potentials.
Our system of three way grazing promotes free cow flow, and even during these tough drought times of little pasture with cows surviving on hay in an almost feed lot situation, cow flow is still quite good. It appears cows know that herding to the dairy will result in waiting, and they continue to move between paddock and dairy in an orderly manner between hay feed out times. It is good to see what we have been doing with cow flow over the last six years being promoted in Europe as the way to go, even in a free stall barn situation.
Max.
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What is the return on investment? How much did it
cost? What do you do with new heifers? How do you find mastitis or footrot?
The
questions come thick and fast, and we find ourselves in demand to provide the
answers that farmers want to hear, like "this cost us a packet, but the prices
will drop dramatically soon" or " you will always need to watch cows being
milked to find health troubles". These are the quotes that dairy farmers want to
here in order to dismiss the technology from their minds.
The reality is quite difference, for instance return on investment needs to account for more than capital cost depreciated over the next 15 years. We as dairy farmers need to address all the variables when analysing the pro's and con's of adopting automatic milking technology. What do we see as the most important issues to take into account? Firstly all issues need to be analysed on a fifteen year timeline, and should include the following,
Retirement Plan. We made the conscious decision to remain dairy farming well into retirement age as apposed to lounging on a beach somewhere up north. The robotic milking system allows the older farmer to maintain total involvement with a reduced need for the high levels of physical input normally required. We see that automatic milking systems will extend the possible working life of dairy farmers. Impact of conventional milking. Since experiencing a health issue we had employed labour in our conventional dairy. Quite a few owners do this and forget what an arduous task milking is, it only takes a small hiccup in the system to bring you back to the realty when you have to front up at 5am on a cold frosty morning and do the milking yourself. Until you have experienced the freedom that automatic milking systems give you without the worry of employees and the need to always be there at milking time, you would not believe the difference that it makes. Animal welfare and community expectations. Almost without exception visitors to our dairy are amazed at the calmness and contentment displayed by the cows. The animals have freedom to be individuals (not forced around) and are never maltreated by the robots. Tail docking is not done and cows remain cleaner because they are not packed tight in the dairy or lanes. OH&S issues. Robotic milking systems will reduce workcare charges for dairy farmers, many of the risks are totally removed from the milking process. There is no close contact between farmer and animal which greatly reduces the risk of physical and also disease based injury. Researchers of the Swedish Agricultural University of Uppsala have reported that the use of a milking robot greatly reduces the risk of injuries through overburdening. The university researchers have conducted their study at eight dairy farms. Four of these farms had a tandem type milking parlour, whereas on the four remaining farms a milking robot had been installed. The upshot of the research was: on dairy farms with a milking robot, the risk of injuries sustained by the dairy farmer was 7 to 12 times lower. Cost of labour. It is hard to estimate what wages will be in twenty years, be sure they will not reduce though. Every increase in wages strengthens the economic position of robotic milking. Cost of upgrading plant. The cost of installing new conventional milking systems is increasing, the cost of automatic systems have decreased since we installed six years ago. Lely have announced a special upgrade deal for farmers who installed prior to the new millennium, aiming to develop a second hand market for the machines. This is a new innovation for the dairy industry creating different cost levels of entry into the new technology, at the same time creating a higher resale value for units that farmers install in the future. When to buy? I can only say now is the time. The system we installed six years ago is a well proven concept, guaranteed to work under 100% pasture based Australian conditions. It is misleading making promises of future developments giving farmers hopes of radical new concepts, when the reality is promises are easy to make and hard to deliver (Milk-Aware in a Landline program in 2001 promised a machine that would milk twice as fast and cost half the price, we are still waiting). Compare the products. When we started Lely was a clear leader in the technology so choice was not really available, however there are other options now and Lely to their credit have designed a great tool to assist farmers to make that all important choice.
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