At the Lely Center Holsworthy, farming Innovation is at the heart of everything we do. Our focus is to deliver the most cost effective and efficient solutions for our customer's in order to increase their productivity and profitability.
Below are some of the ways in which we have helped or customers. CLICK HERE to find out how we can help you achieve your farming goals.
1 x A4 robot
Dave Butland has a 70-cow dairy, young stock and beef rearing unit based at Cuxton Farm, near Tavistock in Devon. Dave milks a 3-way cross of Brown Swiss / Holstein / Montbéliarde and has one Lely A4 robotic milking system which he installed in 2011.
3 x Lely A5 robots
Andrew & Di Heard farm a 174-cow dairy herd near Barnstaple in North Devon and made the successful transition from a 20-year-old milking parlour to a modern 3-robot Lely Astronaut milking system in 2022.
2 Astronaut A3 milking robots
There are double celebrations on Denny, Brenda, Steve & Lucie Hooper’s farm near Okehampton, Devon this spring as one of their two Lely A3 robots surpassed the 10 million kg milk milestone and one of their cows, 16-year-old “Inwardleigh Cougar Daisy Lin 3”, has just had her 12th calf and produced over 138,000 kg of milk.
3 Astronaut milking robots, 1 Grazeway
Russell Hayman farms a 180-cow dairy herd outside Honiton in Devon and made the successful transition from a traditional herringbone milking parlour to a modern 3-robot Lely milking system in 2018
2 second-hand A4 Astronaut milking robots
“I’ve been milking cows since I left school at 16. Dairy farming can really wear you down with its life sentence of twice a day milking, but this robotic system has taken the daily grind out of the work and renewed my love of farming."
3 Astronaut A3 milking robots
Congratulations to Paul Westaway who has just seen the 2nd of his three Lely Astronaut A3 robots surpass the 10 million kg milk milestone.
3 Astronaut milking robots
With a £1000 a month reduction in labour costs, the robots using less electricity, a £1300 feed reduction and the increase in milk yield, the robots are more than paying for themselves.
3 Astronaut A3 milking robots
Robot longevity key to 10 million kg milk milestone. Looking after your robots and having a great team of engineers at Lely Center Devon & Cornwall on hand to help is the secret to Paul Westaway’s incredible robot milestone.
3 Astronaut A5 milking robots
Supportive, knowledgeable, and patient Lely Center staff made the transition from parlour to robotic milking a smooth one for farmers Ed and Merry George. near Buckland Brewer in North Devon.
1 Discovery 120 Collector
Paul is now saving two bales worth of sawdust each day due to cleaner cows requiring fewer bedding changes. This is saving him £8.60 a day which over a 6-month housing period in the winter will be a saving of £1500 in bedding alone. The Collector will have paid for itself within 3- or 4-years Paul predicts as it is also saving 1.5 hours in paid labour, tractor depreciation and fuel costs
1 Discovery 120 Collector
Charlie Trivett, Herdsman at Castlewood Farm near Axminster, works with a 100-cow dairy herd and has seen a difference in the calmness of his cows since purchasing the Lely Discovery 120 Collector, as well as a significant reduction in manual labour hours and costs.
1 Discovery 120 Collector
Chris Quance says he took a punt on a Discovery 120 Collector. “I’d only seen the robot in operation for 10 minutes before I took the plunge to invest. Eight months on and it’s definitely one of the bits of kit I now wouldn’t want to be without. In fact, it’s scheduled to pay for itself within three years.
1 Discovery 120 Collector
There has been a noticeable reduction in digital dermatitis throughout the herd since installing the Lely Collector robot says Jeff Harris, and he is seeing cleaner cows in general and with udders being so much cleaner, milking times in his parlour have reduced as he is not needing to clean the cows so thoroughly pre milking.
1 Lely Juno
Matthew Rowe says that the Juno feed pusher is an invaluable piece of kit in his new barn, noticeably reducing food wastage as well as easing competition at the feed fence.
1 Lely Juno
Daily intake has increased by 6.5kg a day and the Olde’s predict that this will not only result in them being able to sell cattle up to 30 days quicker and saving around £40 per head, but this will also see an annual increase in stock throughput.
2 Astronaut milking robots, 1 Grazeway
It is important to us to see our cows outside grazing and displaying their natural behaviours. The Lely Grazeway has given us the flexibility to combine robotic milking on two Lely Astronaut A5 robots with grazing for six months of the year. Whilst outside grazing, the herd is averaging up to 34 litres from 2.5 milkings per day; pre-robots we would average around 25 litres.
2 Astronaut milking robots, 1 Juno, 1 Grazeway
15 years ago, the Harvey family took the plunge and invested in two A3 milking robots. With changes needing to be made to the farm to secure its future, Fred made the decision that robots were the way forward and fifteen years on they have also added the Juno automatic feeder and the Grazeway system to their barns.
1 Astronaut milking robot, 1 Grazeway
We have noticed that visitors to the farm expect to see our cows outside grazing; our organic herd use the Grazeway to decide when they want to go outside, and they come back inside to the Astronaut to be milked. They really are ‘free range’ cows.
2 Astronaut milking robots, 1 Juno, 1 Discovery 90 SW
Investing in two Lely Astronaut A5 robotic milking systems and a Juno feed pusher has helped us to increase yield, improve herd health and welfare, and for us, have a life,” says Simon who together with his wife, Alison and son, Ben milk a high output 315 commercial cow commercial herd near Wadebridge, Cornwall.
2 Astronaut milking robots, 1 Discovery 120 Collector
Installing robots stopped me selling the herd and kept me in dairy farming” says Chris Cory about his two A5 milking robots. “After milking in a parlour for almost 40 years, I was ready to sell up, but the robots have made such a difference that I am continuing to farm and my children now have a future in dairy farming.
3 Astronaut milking robots, 1 Juno, 1 Discovery 90 SW
Robotic systems help to solve labour issues, improve overall enterprise efficiency and for us introduce that element of flexibility. We are setting our sights on continuing to build cow numbers to 350 in order to develop a robust business for the next generation; we’ve four children aged between 22 and 13 years of age, and 20-year-old Alex is already back working on the farm.
3 Astronaut milking robots, 1 Grazeway
Exploiting the A5 milking robot’s exit gate potential has provided the Kitto family with the opportunity to combine robotic milking with grazing a portion of their 185-cow pedigree Holstein herd for up to six months of the year, and in turn pre-empt their processors’ requirements.
2 Astronaut milking robots, 1 Juno, 1 Discovery 90 SW
Investing in the Discovery 90 SW automated slurry scraper is one more tool contributing towards improving herd efficiency, says Gareth Tape who manages the 110 Hardisworthy pedigree cow Holstein herd with his father, Les, near Bideford, Devon. The robot has also introduced significant cost savings resulting in payback within approximately two years.
