Improving cow health, welfare and comfort with clean floors 

“Replacing twice a day tractor scraping with two Lely Discovery 120 Collector slurry vacuums programmed to scrape passages 11 times a day has introduced a plethora of benefits. Added together, those benefits are scheduled to pay for the robots within two years.”

• + 3 litres per cow per day
• 50% ¯ cell count to SCC 100 
• 50% ¯  mastitis incidences to one per three months, plus subsequent reduced antibiotic usage 
• 15% ¯  reduction in foot trimming per month 
• 50% ¯  reduction in digital dermatitis to 5% incidences
• 50% ¯  milking prep time to 25 minutes per day
• £10,000 labour saving; plus tractor fuel and maintenance 
• Minimal power requirement, 75p/robot/day 

“Everything is so much cleaner, the cows’ general health has improved, they’re more relaxed and spend more time eating and up to an extra four hours a day lying down. For us, milking is less stressful, routine jobs are easier and we’ve more time for other work, whilst the robots have freed up a tractor.”

Jon Evans, Newport, Pembrokeshire: 185 cow Holstein herd ave 9,000 litres