Sisters lead family farm into the future with robotic investment

Farm facts:

• Milking 110 pedigree Holsteins; 135 in the herd
• All-year-round calving
• Yielding 43kg at 4.1% butterfat and 3.38% protein
• Somatic cell count of 150,000cells/ml
• Supplying Müller/Co-op
• Cows averaging three milkings daily with 10% free time on the robots
• Rearing 50 beef cross dairy calves to 18 months
• Farming 265 acres (90 acres rented and the rest owned)
• Growing 45 acres of wholecrop and the rest grass.

They weren’t sure they wanted to take over the farm, but what started as a temporary stopgap ignited a spark for dairying neither had fully appreciated. 

Fast-forward four years, the 26 and 22-year-olds have taken over the 135-cow dairy.

Their parents, Roger and Karen, had considered selling the cows in 2024, but with both daughters on board, they invested in a new state-of-the-art milking shed equipped with the latest A5 Next Lely robots. The robots replaced a 40-year-old six-aside herringbone parlour. 

About the building

The new shed was bolted onto an existing straw shed, originally designated for dry cows. 

This part was retained as a separation area behind the two robots, with the new shed providing space for three rows of cubicles and mattresses. The shed incorporates two cross-over passages and an indoor feed fence. 

Katy and Lucy visited 15 robot farms, and Lely Center Midlands took them to the Netherlands to get inspiration for shed design. The building work was undertaken by Phil Richards, Whitchurch, and includes a lined slurry lagoon to provide enough storage for six months. This was dug by AP Hall, Bayston Hill. 

The area in front of the robots is slatted and contains an underground tank. Slurry is pumped into a reception pit at the end of the shed, then travels uphill to the lagoon. 

The build was started in November 2024, and the robots were first switched on in September. 

They were 50% funded under the Farming Productivity Grant, with additional fixtures subsidised through RPA’s Farming Equipment and Technology Fund.

Making the transition to robots

The cows are now run as one group for ease of management, but during the transition, they split the high and low yielders inside the shed.

“The first morning, we milked the highs through the parlour, then started pushing lows through the robots at 8.30 am and by 3 pm, the highs were ready to start going through the robots,” explains Lucy. 

The Farm Management Support (FMS) team at Lely Center Midlands were on hand to assist with the switchover and advised using gates to funnel cows into the robots.

“By about day four, some cows were queuing up waiting to be milked, and after one week, we removed the gates. The team at Lely gave us a lot of guidance, and we merged the two groups after 10 days,” recalls Lucy.

Benefits

Milking took three hours in the morning and afternoon. Time has been saved – it now takes an hour in the morning and the afternoon to collect cows and half hour to wash down the robots. 

An additional one hour and 40 minutes has been saved by installing a Lely Discovery Collector to automatically clean floors. 

Staff have been reduced from one part-time milker and an additional 30-hour-per-week labour unit to one relief worker on weekends to give Katy and Lucy time off.

Although Lucy says that robots are not the answer if your goal is to cut labour.

“You still must do work; it just makes your day more flexible. For example, if you’re going out in the evening, you can get your work done earlier, and it doesn’t hurt.”

The biggest improvement since the robots were installed has been yield, says Katy.

“The cows are up 10 litres on this time last year at 44.9kg. Moving to three times daily milking has helped the cows achieve their genetic potential, but cow comfort and welfare have also improved, which has helped,” she adds. 

Breeding has always been a strong passion for the Masons. They currently have 14 animals classified excellent and 27 very good. They began genomic testing heifers six months ago. The top 50% are bred to sexed semen to breed replacements and the remainder go to a Limousin stock bull to produce dairy-beef progeny. These are finished and sold to ABP.

The Masons changed their breeding criteria some time ago, with a move to robots always on the cards.

“We have been breeding robot-ready cows with good teat length and placement,” says Katy. 

“We like our Holstein cows, and they are made for the robot,” adds Lucy, who says that heifers have taken to the robots very quickly and “milk is flying” at 37.5kg, on average.

She adds: “Within a day or two, they are going through by themselves.”

Future

Katy says despite the fact she misses milking “a little bit” she wouldn’t go back.

“It’s given us more time to manage other areas of the business.”

They believe robots, alongside genomic testing, will help them push yields to the next level from 11,000 litres annually to 13,000 litres and are excited for the future.

Lucy adds: “I believe robots are the future. We can now manage the cows by ourselves, and we don’t have to rely on outside labour.”