Our two Lely Juno feed pushers have become indispensable. They’re guaranteeing fresh feed in front of the cows - currently averaging 12,200 litres - 24/7 resulting in an extra 1.0 litre per head per day, butterfat is being maintained at an average 4.05% whilst DM intakes have increased by 1kg per head.

The robots are saving us approximately four hours a day in labour plus diesel whilst daily running costs amount to approximately £1 each. Add together all those benefits plus the additional milk, and each Juno easily paid for itself within four months of purchase. In fact, after investing in the first robot four years ago and witnessing additional yield, our minds were easily made up to buy a second to provide sufficient power to work around our five sheds.

We feed out once a day and used to push up with a front-end loader and feed pusher. It looked like a quick job, but actually took an hour to get done. We should have been pushing up six times a day, in reality it was four times maximum. All that’s changed. We programme the Juno to push up 10 times a day. We come out in a morning and the troughs have been cleaned up, waste is absolutely minimal.