John Ring is the fifth generation of his family to live and farm at Coolowen, near Blarney in Co. Cork and lauds the day he decided to move to robotic technology.
Married to Mary and father to PJ and James, John and his farm manager, Pat Reid milk 140 British Friesian type cows, which calve in both autumn and spring.
The farm supplies both manufacturing and liquid milk to Dairygold.
Just over two years ago, John had two Lely Astronauts installed – which involved building onto an existing cubicle house.
“Our parlour had reached a stage where it was starting to show its age so initially, we decided that we were going to put in a milking parlour,” John explained.
“One evening, Mary and myself were having another chat about what we were going to do, when she asked me had I considered going down the robotic route.
“That chat persuaded me to visit several farms where the robot had been installed, and I was very impressed with how the system worked.”
John said that there was very little building involved when it came to housing the Astronauts and the Grazeway: “We covered the existing collecting yard – and for the Grazeway, we installed a tank off the existing cowshed, and we were good to go after that.
“When we were building on, we looked ahead by factoring in sufficient space to install two more robots should we need them.
“We’re also considering the installation of solar panels which would complement the robots all day, every day and that, in turn, would create a long-term saving for us in terms of sustainable energy use,” added.
Dealing with the transition
Becoming accustomed to the new system initially proved “a stressful time for both man and beast, I don’t know how it would have been possible without the team from Lely Mitchelstown”, John admitted.
“The first three days was tough going. We separated the cows into three groups for another three days, and by day 10, only a handful of cows needed help adapting to the robot.
“Inside a fortnight, we had transformed how we milked. The Lely Astronaut and Grazeway has been a gamechanger for us. Pat and myself adapted to it, the cows adapted to it and we haven’t look back since.”
In terms of animal welfare, John said the Lely Astronaut and Grazeway has “made the cows way easier to manage – there’s no-one rushing them”.
“It’s fascinating to watch them pass each other – one going to the robot, another going to grazing, and no stress on them at all – they’re at their ease and can pretty much do what they want.”
Unexpected bonus from robotic technology
The benefits of the system came into sharp and unexpected focus for John and his family, when he became unwell last November.
“I was critically ill in hospital for 16 days while we were at the height of calving at home, so Pat, my farm manager and my wife Mary took over the show, yet I could see how everything was going on the farm off my phone.
“When you bear in mind that Pat and I were pretty much illiterate on the technology front up until we had the robots installed, that just goes to show the quality and user friendliness of the Lely system.
“To be in my hospital bed and to remain up-to-date with how everything was going on the farm, I can’t describe how much stress that took off me,” he said.
Robotic technology –a better way of farming
The daily dynamic on the Ring’s farm has been radically altered according to John – and for the better.
“The robots have allowed Pat and myself to do other jobs in a way that we couldn’t if we were working in the older, more traditional parlour set-up,” he explained.
“After changing a wire around 10 each morning, Pat can go managing the grass, while I could be baling silage or cutting strong grass when we have it. It’s after revolutionising our time management.”
Enhanced decision-making
Thanks to Lely, John and Pat can make more informed decisions when it comes to drying off.
“This is our second year using selective dry cow therapy; at the click of a button, we can see the history of every cow’s lactation and daily cell count and then base our decisions on how to treat each cow thereafter,” John said.
“Thanks to the system, we also know when a cow is sick pretty much before she herself even knows about it.”
John also saluted the “brilliant support” provided by Lely Mitchelstown since the system’s installation: “You call them with an issue, and you get a call back either instantly, or within just a few minutes.”
As for what advice he would offer to farmers who have not yet ‘gone robotic,’ John replied: “Firstly, go and talk to a farmer who has the system up and running. That’s exactly what we did and it opened my eyes to the system’s possibilities – and it only took one Lely Mitchelstown Centre open day to persuade me.
“By the end of that open day, I practically had two robots bought and it was probably the best farm-related decision that I’ve ever made.”
Meanwhile, John Curtin who farms near the village of Athlacca, Co. Limerick, is the owner of the highly accredited Rosstemple herd of pedigree Holsteins.
John’s herd comprises 65 cows and operates a split-calving system with 75% calving in the spring and the remainder in autumn.
John is a proud father to five children, and found he needed to reduce the workload on the farm in order to prioritise family life. Prior to changing to a robotic milking system, he was spending up to 2.5 hours milking each morning.
“Things are a lot more flexible now; with five young ones, they need to be brought here, there and everywhere and now, it’s just so much easier.”
John came down in numbers when he decided to install a Lely Astronaut A5 robot, going from 90 down to 65.
However, despite reducing the herd size, with the robot, he finds that there is more milk-per-cow – averaging 2.8 milkings-per-cow, per-day and being able to feed them individually means he can ensure they are getting what they need.
For most farmers when adapting the milking parlour, it can be a worrying time anticipating how the cows are going to react to the change, but thankfully for John “the cows took to it like ducks to water”.
John Curtin also commented on the amount of data that is now available to him about the herd through Horizon:
“It’s unreal, we have the world of data from Horizon. The more information we have, the more we tend to use it in terms of analysing herd performance and overall herd health.”
When doing his research on robotic milking, John attended numerous open days and visited other robot farmers, “I saw enough of them to know that they work”.
Future-proofing his farm, he decided to leave room for a second robot, should he decide to expand down the line.
As a one-man operation, he finds the automatic heat detection and drafting particularly handy for AI-ing cows, and the return separation feature enables him to select cows on the system to be drafted back through a footbath.
This saves him endless time on the farm and ensures animal husbandry standards are optimal.
Maintaining and operating the robot is very straightforward according to John: “If you ever have a question, or there is anything you are unsure of, you just pick up the phone – day or night and Lely Center Mitchelstown are there to help.”
To register for one of the open days, please click here.
