Last up in the Back In Focus series is a father-and-son’s journey in swapping a 12-unit parlour for two robots in Co. Cork.
Based outside Mallow in the Rebel County, Seamus and James Bourke milk 125 high-performing pedigree Holstein cows.
The duo opened up their farm to the public for a DeLaval open day, for people to have a look at their robotic milking system and hear about how it has been going for them so far.
The Bourkes made the move from their 12-unit parlour to robotic milking in early 2021 and in doing so, have increased cow numbers from 95 up to 125, with room to left to expand further also at their disposal.
Speaking to Agriland about the move to robotic milking, James said: “Once I came home to farm full time in late 2019, we continued to milk in the 12-unit parlour for another year before installing the robots.
“My father has been milking in a parlour since he was 13-years-of-age, full-time, and from his point of view he was looking at me and thinking he didn’t want the same for me.
“From my perspective, I would have continued milking in the 12-unit, I didn’t know any different and I was happy enough to do that but it would have had have to been upgraded, so both an upgrade on the parlour and robots were considered.
“However, we made the decision to change from a lifestyle perspective and go with robots. Once Dad was happy that robots were the way to go it was easy to get on board.”
Building work carried out
The task of changing to a robotic-milking system wasn’t simply done overnight. The Bourke’s had to carry out a fair share of building work to make the transition possible.
The Bourkes had been milking in a 12-unit parlour, with no drafting facilities and a small crush that could only hold five cows and house 95 cows.
So to facilitate an increase in cow numbers, an extension to the existing cubicle shed and an upgrade in cow handling facilities was carried out.
The new part of the shed was built by O’Keefe Bros in Cork. Two bays were added to the existing cubicle shed, with the Bourkes now having more than one cubicle/cow.
Within the cubicle shed, beside the robots, a buffer-feeding area was set up also.
They added a further 56 cubicles to the shed, the majority of which are in the main cubicle area, while the rest (15) can be found in two separate isolation areas.
Three new slatted-tanks were also constructed, two within the shed and one outside where the grazing gates are found.
Two 70ftx14ftx8ft tanks, one for slurry and one for soiled water, were constructed, as well as one 36ftx14ftx8ft tank which serves the area where the grazing gates are outside the shed.
Furthermore, building work for the two robots was completed, with concrete work also done for a third robot if the Bourkes wish to expand further.
James said the only regret that they have is not making the pits for both robots 600mm deep, having only done it for one of them. The crush was upgraded to hold 10 cows.
The robots and pre-selection gates
The Bourkes installed two DeLaval VMS V300 robots which were sourced and fitted by Tom Harte Farm Services.
The two robots take up residence in the new part of the cubicle shed and allow, currently, for 125 cows to be milked.
A new bulk tank was purchased as the old one was too small (11,000L), with milk being collected after five milkings before with the 12-unit parlour.
With the new 20,000L capacity bulk tank, the Bourkes are also capable of holding milk for a third robot.
Speaking about the benefits they find the robots offer, James said: “I suppose one great benefit of the robot is that each quarter is milked individually, so no quarter is under or over-milked.
“We were quite surprised when we started off, with the robots the amount of cows that actually were only producing 200ml from a quarter.
“So we’re able to dry off them quarters in those cows and sure those would have been high somatic cell count quarters.
“Another benefit would be the conductivity. You basically can catch cows 36 hours before the onset of mastitis.
“If the conductivity goes above six and there’s a drop in yield in the quarter, you’ll be fairly sure you’re going to find something off.”
“The feed-to-yield is a game changer for us. Any cows that were doing over 50L last year, that peaked at that, we pulled them back in days breeding wise, and as a result average 10 days extra milk, which pays for itself,” he continued.
“Cows are far less stressed in the robot than when we had them in the parlour. Everything is at their own pace. If any of them get lame, which is rare, they heal a lot faster we find,as they aren’t being driven around the place.”
In terms of having to hunt cows into the robot, James said he wouldn’t have to sweep paddocks that often to get cows and said that if you are having to do that it’s more your fault than the cows, as you probably allocated too much grass to them.
“I have to go out and move the strip wires anyway everyday, so when I’m out and if it happens that a cow is due to be in going in for milking I can just bring her in. But like I said, it’s rare that we have to do that.”
In terms of running costs, James said that the robots are about €25 more to run if you were basing it off milking in the old 12-unit parlour per day (twice a day milking), but said that is wiped out nearly straight away as cows are being milked more often.
James said that the two robots are doing roughly 160 milkings/day; “it’s doing 10 times more work than the parlour was”.
The servicing costs of the two robots together, excluding detergents and rubber ware is €4,300. James said that the rubber ware is €135/robot/5,000 milkings.
In terms of feeding concentrates with the robot, the Bourkes have it set up that they can feed two different feeds.
Cows can get a mineral carrier nut at a standard rate, so until autumn it’s at a 2kg rate and it may go down afterwards then to 1.5kg.
Furthermore, a second feed-to-yield feed is set up, which can feed from zero up to 8kg depending on the stage of lactation and litres being produced. Very few cows get the 10kg in total, James said.
In terms of the pre-selection gates, James said that they are a super job and were one of the key reasons for going with a DeLaval in the first place.
“The pre-selection gate option really caught our eye. It’s an extra cost but it makes some difference. Cows that aren’t due in for a milking but are trying to get in are turned away,” he said.
“It means that cows that are due to be milked get into the robot and cows that were in block B but are allowed into fresh grass in block C, the gate will allow them through if they have been milked.”
“Other than that, some other features is when the milk is being collected, cows that are in the robot being milked, their milk is diverted into a separate second tank – which is great and means the robots don’t shut down when the milk is being collected and as a result milk collection doesn’t upset the cows’ routine,” he added.
“We also have a back-up tank of water for the robots if, God forbid, a pipe burst somewhere on the farm. We have a 1,000L capacity tank that is there for the robots to continue working as usual. We also have a Calor gas heater for hot water.”
Grazing infrastructure
With any change in a system comes some readjustments and tweaks. Luckily, not a huge amount of work had to be done with the existing grazing infrastructure on the Bourke’s farm to get it set up for an ABC grazing system.
Two main roadways were already in place to serve the existing platform, so one more was needed, which the Bourke’s laid down using fill excavated from the digging out of the slatted tanks.
Other than that, small additions were made, such as: Installing four more water troughs; moving one; and changing the gaps in paddocks from having them in the middle of paddocks, to the corners in the direction of the robots in the yard.
It was a “fairly cheap” job to do, getting the grazing infrastructure in place and set up for ABC grazing, James said.
The transition
Speaking about the transition to robotic milking, James said that it wasn’t easy initially.
He said: “It wasn’t straightforward; the first three months were hard work. It was drawn out for us because we were calving the cows down onto the robot, rather than some who train them in one blast before calving starts.
“We had a few teething problems to deal with when we got started initially with the robots, but after a month when we got into the swing of it and the cows did, it has been extremely reliable and working well ever since.”
Freedom
“It has given us a lot more freedom. Once we have the morning jobs done, I take Saturday off and same again Sunday; Dad takes Sunday’s off.
“It gives us great flexibility that way. Of course we could organise it that way if we had a parlour too, but we feel it gives us more flexibility and you probably end up working less during the week as well.
“It’s different work too. You’re not tied. One example is, in the morning, at 7:00a.m you can go away and spread slurry for the day and stay at it until 7:00p.m that evening, and not have to worry about bringing in cows for milking.
“In my opinion, robots will milk cows on any farm. If it’s not working it’s the person’s fault rather than the robots or the cows’ fault, and for us, once we got the swing of it, it’s been the best decision we have made to change.”
Looking at the costs, the two robots, bulk tank, three-way gates, vaccuum pump and everything else that comes with the installation of the robot cost €340,000 including VAT.
The building work, James said, is coming in at north of €200,000.
