A 200-head dairy unit on the Devon/Cornwall border will open its gates to show fellow dairy farmers how installing DeLaval milking robots have helped create a future for the family and the herd.
Newlands Farm is owned by Robert and Elizabeth Haworth. Their daughter Sarah manages the farm with her partner David Luxton, and in 2018 the couple chose to make a major investment by introducing a DeLaval robotic milking system.
“Sarah and I had to make a big decision about the future of the herd and the dairy,” Mr Luxton said. “We knew we needed to invest and robots offered us an opportunity to future proof the farm.”
Three DeLaval VMS V300 milking robots were installed on the farm in a newly constructed shed designed for the 200 pedigree Holstein herd.
“We opted for a guided cow traffic system, which gives our cows the choice of when to rest, feed and visit the robots to be milked,” Mr Luxton added. “It has also given us the opportunity to spend more time managing the farm and its future.”
The previous 16:16 parlour was deteriorating, and the couple worked very long hours milking and maintaining the equipment.
“Our twins were born five years ago; we knew something had to change if we were going to be parents and dairy farmers,” Mr Luxton said. “It was a case of change the parlour or look at more drastic measures.”
The cows pass through the guided traffic system, which includes a series of gates and automated checks, up to 16 times. However, each cow will only gain milking permission an average of 2.5 times/day, depending on individual yield and stage of lactation. Each cow is monitored using DeLaval farm management software DelPro that gives the couple a performance dashboard on the farm PC and smartphones. The frequency each cow is milked, the yield and any health problems are all available remotely.
“Even if I am away, I know exactly what’s happening,” Mr Luxton said. “I can interpret the data provided by the robots to manage every cow individually.”
The herd operates a multi-cut silage system and in 2019 was able to make five cuts. This winter’s silage is 11.5 ME has a 70 D value and contains 20 per cent protein. This helps the herd to deliver milk with at least 4.2 percent fat and 3.2 percent protein. In the previous parlour system the cows yielded an average of 31 litres/head. This has increased to 33.5 litres/head, an additional 430 litres every day in the six months the robotic system has been in place.
On April 2, 2020, Newlamds Farm will open its gates to farmers who want to see how DeLaval’s robotic milking system works.
More information on the event, and DeLaval’s milking robots, is available at: www.delaval.com.
