LELY VOYAGER - charged and ready to work
LELY VOYAGER - charged and ready to work
Henry Hugh Henry is a person who likes to constantly challenge his farming life. Whilst his 150 acre farm may be situated in a quiet, rural area of Londonderry, Northern Ireland, Henry's life is certainly hectic with 126 milking cows and 25 followers providing the farm with plenty of activity.
Installed in December 2004, the two LELY ASTRONAUT A2 units satisfy milking needs with the cows being well settled into their daily routine. Milk yield from the Holstein herd is aimed to increase to 9,000 litres, but this is only the beginning.
Like many milk producing farms, the European Nitrate Directive has necessitated further investment to meet its stringent requirements. Henry has introduced a new cubicle house extension with slatted floors, expanded his slurry store and purchased a new LELY VOYAGER to better manage his grass utilisation.
Two ASTRONAUT A2s are fitted back-to-back within the cubicle house and as these were reconditioned units, costs were affordable and budgets were met whilst all of the additional building work progressed.
An old 8/16 parlour was proving to be both too small and too slow; and increasing the size of the collecting yard to accommodate a larger, faster parlour seemed like a waste of money and space. Realising that money could be better spent on making life easier, Henry and his father John decided to give the LELY milking system ‘a go'. Now, three years on, with the reliability and service of LELY staff and equipment being well and truly proven, Henry is giving LELY ‘a go everywhere' !
The herd's milk is sold to a local dairy Town & Monrghan Co-op, which has contracts to supply baby food to China. Consequently the quality of the milk has to be good with no contamination present.
Individual milking of each quarter allows milk quality checks to be made at every milking, whilst automatic cleaning of each cow's udder, the milking cluster milk lines and bulk tank all ensures that milk produced on Henry's farm is of the very best quality. These in-built standards to the LELY ASTRONAUT ensure milk prices remain at a premium.
Cows now have a new LELY VOYAGER automatic grazing system to come to terms with, as Henry is the first farmer to purchase this latest LELY innovation. Two wheeled robot electric fence units travel up and down the grass fields allowing cows a pre-programmed amount of grass. As these units can move the fence forward - or back - several times each day, grass is not trampled on or spoilt. Henry reckons that this experience will keep his cows on their toes !