Lely

The De Bruin-Kloosterboer family - Lely Astronaut A2 and A3 - The Netherlands

The De Bruin-Kloosterboer family of Tonden

Introduction:
Last month there was every reason for a party at the family-owned De Bruin dairy farm at Tonden. Two of their cows had achieved a fantastic performance: a 100,000 kg milk production.  Extraordinary fact: these two cows had been milked by a Lely robot throughout their astounding production cycle.  So there is every reason to look behind the scenes of the De Bruin dairy farm.

Starting date robotic milking:
In 1998 the De Bruin family made the switch toward automated milking, when they started off with two Lely A2 milking robots. The farm saw a steady growth and in 2003/2004 a third robot was installed. A new barn was built offering space for 250 cows and four robots. In 2007 building was finalized and four A3 robots were installed to milk all of the farm's cows.

Reason for purchasing a Lely milking robot:
The De Bruin family made the decision to pursue automated milking because of the peace and quiet in their herd. In addition, after this construction project, labour was an important factor throughout the decision process to carry on with automated milking. They opted for Lely because theirs is a single box system, which fitted in best with the family's ideas. After the whole family had carefully considered the project, the purchase of the robot went ahead.

How did you experience the first few weeks, while starting up your milking robot?
The first few weeks of the A2 system did not run off all that smoothly. The De Bruin family feels that cow traffic was "forced" too long. There was no more peace in the herd, which did not remain without consequences.  All in all, a great deal was learned during that stage and the transition to the A3 models went off without a hitch.

Strengths of the company:
The De Bruin farm is a true family business and their strong points are:

      -  doing the work together;
      -  maintaining good relationships with feed advisor and vet;
      -  short walking lines in the barn.

Ease of operation and joy are written in capitals and family life is not allowed to suffer from the hectic business at the dairy farm. In the context of ease of operation, the dairy farm also boasts a Lely Calm calf drinking station.

Farm management
As an average, the farm manages 200 cows in lactation, at an average daily production per robot of 1,600 kg.  The rolling yearly average is 10,518. The average number of milkings per cow/day is 3.2., with 3.3 refusals. Depending on the time of day, a dozen of cows need to be collected during every round.

Milk quality over the past month:
Somatic cell count   187
Fat                               4.27
Protein                        3.41

Advice for your colleagues:
A piece of advice from the family for fellow dairy farmers: ensure peace and quiet in the barn and for yourself as well. Make sure your cows are well prepared; a good ration with sufficient structure contributes towards success.

All things taken together, we are quite happy to pursue our management and we are looking positively at a new year.