A Cleaner Barn, a Smarter Future: Meet the Lely Discovery

Maintaining a clean barn floor in dairy production can be a challenge in the current climate, whether that is labour challenges on your farm or costs of production. There are multiple manure scraping solutions on the market, some with considerable benefits compared to the competition. A well-managed clean shed offers several significant benefits, which can enhance animal health, improve milk quality, and optimise operational efficiency.

The Lely Discovery 90 is an automatic manure scraper that is designed to scrape slatted floors in your cow shed. The Discovery 90 provides a flexible solution compared to the current traditional auto scrapers or tractors. The Discovery travels around the cow shed scraping the passageways forcing any manure through the slats.  The Discovery can be programmed with Multiple routes to fit with the daily routine of the cows and the farmer. For instance, you can program when to clean the area at the feed fence to assure minimized disturbance of your cows. Auto scrapers cannot scrape half a passageway, the Discovery can give far greater flexibility. On top of the benefits of the Discovery 90 SW is the fact it can clean the barn floor with its integrated water-spray system. This prevents the build-up of a film layer and therefore making the floor less slippery. There is a front nozzle spraying water to dissolve the slippery layer and clean the floor more effectively. The compact design of the Discovery not only allows it to be more manoeuvrable but also allows cows to move freely around it not disturbing them in their daily routine, we will now investigate some of the key advantages the Lely Discovery 90 and SW can bring to your cow sheds.

Animal Health and Welfare - In Combination with good cubicle management the Lely Discovery  can help to reduce disease incidence. Clean floors help minimise the accumulation of manure, and other waste products, reducing the risk of bacterial and viral infections, such as mastitis and digital dermatitis. The Lely Discovery 90 or 90 SW is one of the best options on the market to achieve this, because of the Discovery’s design it can clean write up into the corners of sheds where auto scrapers and tractor scrapers simply can’t reach, allowing the Discovery to remove potential breeding grounds for bacteria. A clean floor enhances cow comfort, reducing stress and improving overall well-being, which can positively impact milk production. The Discovery can also help to minimise Injury, removing manure reduces the risk of slips and falls, leading to fewer injuries among the herd. The extra benefit of the discovery is the front & rear water sprayer. The front to improve the scraping process of the Discovery, the rear sprayer helps to clean the shed floor after the robot has scraped, helping to prevent any slippery surfaces the cows may encounter. As the Discovery 90 cleans the shed floors regularly there is never a large buildup of manure in the shed, this compared with the more traditional auto scraping option, where a wave of manure is pushed down the passageway covering cow’s feet in manure potentially creating a breeding ground for bacteria. The cows also must actively step over the auto scrapers as the move down the passageway this can cause injuries if she is at the feed fence and doesn’t see it coming. This is a thing of the past with the Lely Discovery.

Milk Quality- The Discovery 90 and 90 SW can also help to maintain milk quality in your milking herd, it can achieve this by reducing Bacterial Contamination: Clean floors prevent the transfer of dirt and bacteria from the floor to the cow’s legs which in turn can be transferred to the udder when she lies in the cubicle. This can result in reduced somatic cell counts and higher milk quality. This will in turn promote better udder health reducing the likelihood of mastitis and other udder infections, leading to better milk yield and quality.

Operational Efficiency - The Lely Discovery range makes manure management on your farm a hassle-free process. The Lely Discovery travels around your shed scraping the manure down the slats before returning to its Charging station to charge and refill with water. The main operational efficiency many farmers notice and often a key driver of investing in a Lely collector is the pressure it takes of the labour force on the farm. being able to automate some of the less desirable and “mundane” jobs on the farm allows staff to focus on more technical aspects of cow care and management or other jobs around the farm also creating a more pleasant working environment. The Discovery will just get on and ensure your shed floor is as clean as you want it to be day and night.

Economic Benefits - Higher Milk Yield and Quality are key drivers for anyone in the dairy industry. Of course there are many factors that influence these, but healthy, clean cows are certainly a contributing factor and the Lely Discovery can help you improve the health of your herd by removing manure and reducing the bacterial population in the shed, this in turn can contribute to reducing the farms veterinary costs, as previously mention cleaner floors lead to cleaner cows legs which lead to cleaner beds and subsequently cleaner udders, this can help to reduce the cases of Mastitis in the herd. A clean shed floor that is not slippery will help to reduce some cases of lameness through reduced issues with Digital Dermatitis and injuries reducing the amount on treating lameness in the herd.

In summary, maintaining a clean barn floor in dairy production is essential for ensuring animal health, producing high-quality milk, optimizing operational efficiency, and achieving economic benefits. The best way of achieving all the above is by the Lely Discovery with its compact design, flexible routing and water spray option it can really drive for a better environment for you, your team and your cows.