2nd - 3rd August 2022

Lely Center Midlands & Lely Center Wales Trip to Ireland

On the 2nd and 3rd of August 2022, our customers from England and Wales were lucky enough to travel between farms in the Tullamore and Kilkenny areas of Ireland. The group looked at robotically milked, grazing systems.

Farm 1 David & Ivan Thomas 2X Lely A4, 1 X Lely A5 & 1 x Lely Collector 120 Milking 202 cows

• Spring calving started milking in 2018 with 100 heifers, increased to milking 140 in 2019 then a third robot in 2022
• Calve mid-late February - April
• 66 Ha or 150-160 acres of grazing, A B C
• Only milking stock and bulls are housed at the robot farm
• 520/530 kilos of milk solids per cow, 7000 litre average
• 14 tonne per Ha grown 2021
• 3/ 4 kilometres of roadway put in
• 2.8-2.9 visits at the robot at peak milk production – August 2.1 visits
• Milk flow 2.3 kg per minute – rubber liners are used at peak milk
• Cows inside from mid November to mid February
• Grazed first round- 30-40% February, 70% March, 100% April

"Solids will give you milk price. Volume will give you milk cheque"

Farm 2 Gwen & Trevor Carnegie 3 X A4’s, 1 X A5 Milking 273 cows

• Spring calving with 40 cows calving in the Autumn, first robot in 2013 then 2015, 2018 & 2020
• 2 Km is furthest paddock to walk
• 1 Grazeway for A paddocks & AI paddock, 1 Grazeway for B & C.
• Checkout style robots with the Lely A5 used to train heifers as it can return separate into cubicles
• 6500 litres average, 560/580 milk solids
• Heifers calved at start of the block
• Grazeway busy 1 hour before and after gate change
• Would like to have more room of exit of the robots as it can cause conjestion
• 4 litres of colostrum fed

"First inch of regrowth is most valuable"

Farm 3 Liam Delaney – 1 Lely A5 - A second installed autumn 2022 Milking 73 cows

• 2019 the Lely A5 started milking
• 40 acres of grazing around the farm, A B C in peak , A B & C in the shed currently with Zero grazed grass
• 6800 litres average / 552 milk solids per cow
• 2.1 visits on the robot that day
• Butterfat 4.3%, Protein 3.6% milk sold to Glanbia
• Grazing season starts september for year ahead
• Graze from January – November/December depending on the year

"Always looking to improve" Mr Delaney Senior

Farm 4 Robbie & Philip Walsh- 2 A4, Discovery 90 Milking 120 cows

• 2017 first started milking with 140 cows spring calving, now in 2022 milking 120 cows
• 5000 litres average/420 solids
• 1.4 tonne of meal
• Use a ‘Grass Hopper’ GPS Plate measure – has improved grazing efficiency
• When averageing 29 litres the cows were fed 0.5kg per day
• Farest paddock 1.3 km
• 140 acre A B C block
• As 180 cows are milked on the home farm by parlour, this block is seen as an out block that has to look after itself – both farmers are also chemists by day job.
• Heifers are milked once a day for the first week by farmer unless they come in of their own accord – most are in 2 + times after 7 days

"6300 litres plus is seen as a high nitrate cow"

Farm 5 Brian Kennedy – 2 A4, Milking 120 cows

• 2012 System changed to Spring Calving from AYR
• Second robot came in 2015, no cubicles
• 7000 litre average/ 600kg milk solids
• 1.1 tonne meal per cow
• At peak averaging 33-35, still averaging 27 litres august
• 2.3-2.4 milking visits
• 3 weeks of AI, then bull
• 92% of cows calved in first 6 weeks, 280 day lactation – longer dry period
• Cows dried of earliest 10th December, latest 24th Decemeber
• Trim 10 cow feet a year, don’t footbath
• Irrigation cost £50,000, runs for 14 hours a day @ £ 5 of deisel per hour – 13000 litres of water a minute – 3 Year ROI based on not having to buy in as much silage in draught conditions as extremely dry farm.
   

"No feed for a kicking heifer"