"Without this, we would have been another dairy farm gone by the wayside."

Luke and father Rodney Padman run their robotic dairy farm in Elizabeth Town, Tasmania. They currently milk 320 cows through 5 Lely robots, across 200 hectares. Previously, they milked with a 20 double up herringbone system before retrofitting milking robots into their existing shed. Whether the robots could fit in their shed was one of the deciding factors for retrofitting the robots, and so after some concreting and yard work, the milking robots were integrated into their dairy in a cost efficient way.

Rodney explained to us how his father was a beef farmer, which is where his enjoyment for working with  livestock began. As he grew up, he bought his own dairy farm, where cows were milked over a 4 unit swingover dairy.

“Technology was very limited in those times, so we just made do with what we had and just gradually improved things as we went along”.

Luke grew up on the farm and has gradually taken over, however with the growing challenges of the dairy industry, the two reached a turning point.

Luke and Rodney express the pain points of the old system being the early mornings but mostly in regards to acquiring reliable labour. Luke describes how:

“Labour was our main driver to change to robotics. It just got that hard to get reliable staff that would show up everyday and do their job, and it got to the stage where we were thinking about getting out of milking cows unless we changed something.”

After retrofitting Lely milking robots into their dairy, Luke explains what it’s like to not have to stress about labour anymore.

“It’s excellent. Getting staff was one issue, but then getting reliable staff, that’s gonna turn up every morning was even harder. The robots are here every day, you’re not gonna get a phone call from them at 3 in the morning saying they’re not going to be there.”

Luke further elaborated saying:

“We don’t have to stress about it, we know that every morning, every afternoon, every evening, cows are getting milked.”

The family farm has experienced some fantastic labour savings as well, going from 5 staff members to just Luke, Rodney and a part time worker.

As stated earlier, the main reason Luke and Rodney retrofit milking robots was for the labour benefits, however the two quickly discovered that Lely milking robots are so much more than just reliable staff.

Rodney exclaimed “We didn’t realise the benefits that we got from these robots. We were just thinking no more phone calls at 4 o’clock in the morning about labour not turning up, but we didn’t realise the benefits that come with these things. In the old system the quickest ones got the most, but now each cow is individually fed to their needs. You don’t have 350 cows in one paddock on a wet night, you have a 100 in each paddock, which is a lot better for your pasture.”

The benefit of individual feed in particular, took Rodney by surprise with just how much of a positive impact it had on their cows.

“Yeah the first year we said we wouldn't take too much notice of production figures and it was a terrible year season wise anyways, we just wanted to get the cows trained up, everything up and running get it running smooth and we sort of focused on this year the second year, and they're really kicking goals this year, they really are, and at a guess, they’d be 15% better than any of the years we’ve had, just because they get what they need.”

Luke and Rodney were excited to talk to us about their newfound free time ever since they retrofit milking robots into their dairy.

Luke explained to us, “Yeah definitely free’d our day time up,we’re not tied to be back here at 2:30. If we’re doing silage or hay we don't have to jump off the tractor to milk, get the cows in, put them away and go back to work, we can continue on and hose out the dairy at the end of the day and go home.”

When asked how this free time affected their personal life, Rodney remarked how “back when we started, we didn’t even have time to take the kids fishing, now you can actually get a life back”.

Installation and servicing of the Padman’s retrofit project was completed by Dairy Maintenance & Installations, owned by Craig and Sheree Stokes. When searching for companies that provide robotic milking installation in Tasmania, Craig’s experience and reliable track record made DMI stand out. After many long days and nights, Craig and the team were able to successfully convert the herringbone into a robotic dairy.

Rodney went on to say “Craig and his team are probably one of the best crews you can have on farm, the work ethic is terrific. He’s just a phone call away if you’ve got a problem, he’ll be there in no time, service is fantastic but even Lely in general, they know when the machines were getting built, what day they were getting on the boat, what day the boat was in Melbourne, they kept us informed all the way and still keep in touch. We couldn’t be happier with the support we get.”

Rodney elaborated on how satisfied he was with his decision in converting the herringbone into robotics. 

“I said to Luke back when we made the decision to go with robotics, I want to do something properly while I’m still here, and when I get it done for you Luke that’ll be it… I’ll go and do my thing. I honestly didn’t think I’d spend much time here at all but as soon as I get out of bed in the morning, I’m down here, seeing how many cows are on heat, what our best cows are producing and yeah it’s definitely dragged me in.”

As for Luke, he hopes one of his kids will take an interest in the dairy and continue the family tradition.

“Not a lot of the younger generation are into dairy farming anymore so I’d like to try and keep the kids interested… They’re still young but already, this system interests them. They come down here and they quite like it whereas the other one, they’d just sit at the end of the pit and wait for dad to finish milking.”

From initially getting into robotics from the labour benefits, to now experiencing a full range of unforeseen advantages, the future is bright for the Padman family. Rodney explained to us how “Without this, we would have been another dairy farm gone by the wayside. I welcome anybody to come and have a look at these, stay for as long as you like, come every day and really get a feel for it because I honestly believe it’s the future… I really do. I’d like to see the dairy industry survive because a lot of people are exiting for the simple fact of costs and labour, and just like with everything else, technology is the future.”