Jim, Darragh and Orla Lenehan in Co Meath

x3 Lely A5 Astronaut automatic milking system

The Lenehans are currently milking 220 cows on 3 A5 Lely Astronauts. These were installed in October 2020

Since switching from the parlour to Lely robots, they have seen a couple of big benefits. Jim would have milked in the parlour for over 40 years and cows used to take 4-6 hours to milk everyday. His daughter, Orla, would say the biggest change they have seen since the robots have been installed has been time-saving and flexibility. “When we were younger and dad was milking in the parlour, it would be after 8pm before the cows would be finished up and milked. We would be in bed by the time he would get home. Now, the cow jobs are finished by as early as half 5 in the evening. He gets to see more of his grandkids now as well because of it.”

As the robot related jobs are more flexible, they can finish up earlier in the evenings if they wish. The morning jobs consist of changing filters, washing robots, calibrations, moving two strip wires and checking the computer. The evening jobs would only be moving one strip wire and washing the robots. Orla said “there is often times we’re finished by 5pm and dad says ‘sure we may find something else to do, we cant go back home already!’”

The Lenehans have also seen an improvement in cow health in the last two years. They have been using the robot data that will show rumination drops for sick cows, especially in the first 60 days of lactation. They have a SCC counter on each robot as well as conductivity readings, which would be an early mastitis detection. Jim has used the data to cull some of the re-offending high SCC cows and treat cows earlier before it has a chance to become clinical mastitis. The Lenehans have over halved their SCC since the installation of the Lely Astronauts.

For more information contact Lely Center Mullingar on 044 9330320