Geary's Farm

The Geary family, from Darkley in Co Armagh, are the proud owners of Northern Ireland’s first operating Lely Astronaut A5 Next robotic milking system.

The investment in the new plant represents the culmination of an almost seven year commitment that has been made to robotic milking technologies.

Alan Geary milks 60 pedigree Montbéliarde cows with his sons. The decision to go into milk was taken six and half years ago.

Prior to this the father and sons’ team had been renowned Limousin cattle breeders.

Alan takes up the story:

“The decision to get into milk was taken as it delivered a monthly milk cheque for the business.

“Quite quickly, we identified that Motebelliarde cattle specifically met the needs of the production system that we wanted to put in place.

“The cows are very robust and they produce high volumes of high quality milk over a long number of lactations.

“In addition, the fertility and health attributes of Montebelliarde cows are exceptionally high: they also produce excellent quality calves, which are much in demand.”

But as Darryl points out, the decision as to which type of milking system to go with wasn’t as straightforward.

He further explained:

“We had the option of installing a traditional parlour or pushing ahead with a robot.

“After lengthy consideration we felt that the robot would give us more flexibility as we also provide a farm contracting service.”

Six years plus into the project, the Gearys were still wedded to the principle of robotic milking but felt strongly that they needed to change the brand of the milking system they were working with.

“We wanted a robot that delivered much higher levels of reliability, efficiency and greater robustness,” Alan stressed.

“So we want out into the market again and sought to find a supplier that met our requirements: Lely ticked all the boxes in this regard.”

According to Darryl, the installation of the new A5 Next has represented a total turnaround in the way their cows are milked.

He said:

“Alarms going off at all times of the day and night are now almost a thing of the past. It’s obvious that the cows prefer the Lely system. This, in part, is due to the fact that animals have much more space available to them in the milking box.

“And it’s the same story with the heifers. When we had the old system, many of our first calvers would have to be brought up to the milking box. Now the polar opposite is the case.

“In fact, the number of animals that have to be physically brought up to be milked on a daily basis has fallen away since the new system has been installed. We are now getting 3 visits per day on average on the Lely system.”

 

The Geary’s have also been very impressed with the overall robustness of the new Lely system: from the robotic milking arm through to the feeding system inside the milking box.

Alan Geary again:

“There are a number of unique design features build into the A5 next that really stand out for us.

“The fact that the feeding trough folds neatly away and does not hinder the cow from exiting the system is very significant compared to the old robot.

“Another stand out feature is the combined use of lasers and cameras to facilitate the cup placement.

“This is helping to speed up milking times considerably.”

They have been very impressed with the tremendous level of service they have received from the team at the Lely Centre, Eglish throughout the entire changeover process.

“It was a seamless process. At first the thinking was that we might have to install a temporary parlour system to allow the change form one robot to the other to be affected,” Darryl commented

“As it turned out, the installation team from Eglish delivered a changeover which saw no milking downtime at all. The Lely A5 Next has been installed in a temporary location beside the old robot. The old robot has now been removed and we will do some small adjustments to allow the Lely robot to be relocated to where the old robot was. Extra cables and air lines have been included in the temporary installation so it will make it quicker to change over.

“I am also very impressed with the software programmes that come with the new Astronaut A5 Next system.

“In the first instance, we can access all the information that is generated by the robot on our phones.

“One very practical benefit of this is the fact that I can identify cows that might need to be physically brought to the robot without first visiting the computer system in the farm office.”

But it’s the robustness of the new system that has truly impressed Alan.

“Cows and heifers will always kick. But there is every sign that the new robot will cope better with all the wear and tear this can cause,” he commented.

“We have also noted that the number of incomplete milkings showing up with the Lely system is much lower than would have been in the other brand of robot.

“This is excellent news from a mastitis prevention perspective.”

Alan concluded:

And, finally, all the dump milk is placed in sealed containers, keeping flies totally at bay.

“With the previous system, the dumped milk was placed in open buckets.”

 

If you want a no obligation farm visit, to see if changing to the latest robotic milking technology with the Lely Astronaut A5 Next, or to see if changing an existing robotic milking systems is viable for your farm call Lely Center Eglish on 028 8765 8507.