Why did you choose the Lely Astronaut?

Seán: “I considered a new milking parlour but with the extra buildings, collecting yard and parlour itself, it would have cost more and I would still have to milk cows. However, Lely Center Mullingar designed a clever plan to position the new robot at the end of the existing parlour. One side of the old parlour was converted into a compressor room and office and the other side left intact for separating and treating cows. It really suited my yard and made great use of the old parlour.”

Philip: “We are milking 180 cows on our home farm in a parlour and we were considering expanding the herd at some stage post quota. We had a separate block of land being used for young stock, beef and silage and we felt that we could utilise it more efficiently with milking cows. Both Robert and I also have off farm employment and after a lot of thought we decided a separate dairy unit on the out farm with a Lely Astronaut A4 and 70 cows was the best option.”

How are you managing your time now?

Seán: “Installing a Lely Astronaut is a change of lifestyle; as well as having more spare time, I have far more flexibility. I was milking 40 cows for 25 years in an old 6 unit parlour and spending over 4 hours per day milking whereas now, I am still as busy as ever but not milking cows anymore. It’s a dream this year, the cows are so used to the system, there is no pressure in the spring with plenty of time available to feed calves, bed cubicles and clean the yard.”

“We both have off farm employment and find the flexibility of the Lely Astronaut and grazing system very beneficial to our working schedule.”

Philip and Robert Walsh

Philip: “In total we are spending about six hours a day between milking and managing the system on the home farm. On the robot farm we are spending no more than an hour a day this time of the year. Most of the work is done before we head to work in the morning. The flexibility of the robot is very beneficial especially when we are busy with work on the home farm. Important tasks can be done at different times throughout the day. We organise the grazing system in a way that makes it very easy to move wires if we need to be elsewhere.’’

What grazing set up are you using?

Seán: “My first year was demanding enough starting out – it took the cows a while to get the hang of grazing. They fully understand the system now and are moving very well. I am operating an A & B grazing system and the cows are offered fresh grass every 12 hours. They are averaging 29 litres on 2.2 milkings’ and 3kg of concentrates.

Philip: “As far as I’m concerned it’s all about grass allocation. We have learned so much about grazing on the robot farm. We are now taking that knowledge back to the home farm where we are paying much more attention to what cows are grazing before and after parlour milking. We are growing 1.5 times more grass than what we were growing before and feel we are using it much better. The flexibility of the ABC grazing system helps when strong grass may need to be baled and taken out.”

“I was looking around for 3 years and with the scarcity of labour and increasing spring workload, the decision was made to install a Lely Astronaut."

Seán Kennedy