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Robot milkers – a labour saver for smaller herds

While the initial investment is high, today’s robots are saving money and improving herd health for dairy farmers with 120 or so cows. But for a herd of 200-300 cows, the outlay may be just too high.

by KATE PROCTER

It will soon be eight years since robotic milkers made their debut on Ontario dairy farms. While they do not fit every system or management style, the technology may provide the solution for family farms as labour becomes more and more expensive and difficult to obtain.

“I’m still amazed at what the robot does,” says Dirk Willemsen who, with wife Betty, milks 55 cows near Milverton. They installed a robotic milker in 2002 and have nothing but good things to say about the technology. “Around the farm, everything is so relaxed. It feels like he is stress-free,” says Betty.

They found that the robotic milker paid for itself a lot faster than they thought it would. Dirk was suffering from health problems that would have forced him from the industry. He was able to continue farming and they were also able to replace an employee. “It was an investment in our health,” he adds.

While the capital cost of the system is high -- $250,000 for the first robot and $180,000 for subsequent machines -- the Willemsens point out that the technology is much more portable than a parlour. If they decide to retire or get rid of the robot for any other reason, they can take it out and resell it.

Improved cow health was one of the biggest cost savings that they found. The incidence of twisted stomachs is much lower than it was when they milked in the tie-stall barn and mastitis has virtually disappeared from the herd. Because the cows are milked throughout the day, they also choose to eat at different times. There is always room at the feed bunk, which results in less pushing and shoving and the cows seem more relaxed, says Dirk.

Not all experiences with robotic milkers are so positive, however. Jacob and Ruth Lechleitner have had a “miserable” summer. They are currently milking103 cows. Almost three years ago, they installed two robotic systems. Since then, they have had a nightmare of trying to get unwilling cows to go through the robots and the herd has experienced a very high somatic cell count (SCC). “It has been really horrible for a while,” says Jacob. “The company does not want to hear the bad side, so they blame us,” he adds.

Their troubles started with a faulty robot at installation. After the computer chip was replaced, things improved for a while, but then got worse again. “The health of the cows has gone down the drain,” says Lechleitner. They built a new barn, specifically targeting cow comfort, but faulty design has resulted in injuries to some animals and they even lost a few heifers as a result.

They also doubled the size of their herd and brought in a lot of new cows. But, somewhere along the line, the cows picked up strawberry foot rot, which the Lechleitners had never seen before. In addition, they have seen a high number of retained placentas and twisted stomachs.

The Lechleitners are trying a new dry cow program in order to reduce these problems and have also made changes in the way the cows approach the robot. They removed the gates that formed the holding area where seven cows would wait to enter the robot, allowing the cows more choice over when they enter to get fed and milked.

This change in design has helped and Lechleitner says he has been surprised at how the cows will volunteer to go in more easily now that the gates are gone. For a herd of 120 cows, they used to spend three to four hours standing around making sure the cows went in. Once they took the gates off, “the cows actually go in on their own,” says Lechleitner.

About ten per cent of the machines installed on Ontario dairy farms come back out again, says Jack Rodenburg, dairy production systems program lead for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. They do so for a variety of reasons, including dissatisfaction with the system, but retirement and updating to a newer model also factor in this number. However, there is a good used market now, which provides producers with the opportunity to try robotic milking at a lower cost, explains Rodenburg. “A robot is easier to remove than a parlour,” he agrees.

Lely accounts for most of the robots installed in Ontario. General manager Paul Tammlinga says that more than a third of their customers are producers who have purchased one robot and either want to increase the number on the farm or upgrade the one they already have.

Rodenburg says that robots are best suited for herds milking about 120 cows and should be used by people who are effective managers and good with cows. If people are putting in robots as a way to get out of the barn, the technology likely won’t work for them. He adds that herds milking with robots tend to have less stress because the cows are not being chased two or three times per day. The herds are generally quieter and udder health is as good if not better than in parlour systems.

Rodenburg notes that early studies at the University of Guelph did not show robotic milking in a positive light, largely because the robot was an early prototype and was not supported well by the company, Prolion, which has since gone out of business. The university has not done any follow-up studies.

While robots always save labour, they are not necessarily the most economical way to go, especially as herd size increases, says Rodenburg. In a herd milking 60 cows, a robot is more economical than a parlour. At 120 cows, the robot is still very competitive, but as herd size moves above 200 cows, a parlour is more price-competitive because more cows are going through it. The capital expense in a herd milking 200-300 cows will be higher for the number of robots required and this will more than offset the reduction in labour costs. For example, a herd milking 400 cows will have an investment of $350,000 in a parlour. This same herd would require seven robots, which would cost substantially more.

Maintenance has been another problem in the past. Lely sends a technician to service the robots regularly six times per year and they are on call 24 hours a day if something breaks down. But when your farm is six hours from the nearest technician, this may not be good enough.

John Mooney farms near Massey, which is north of Manitoulin Island. Once he decided that robot milking was the way to go, he was determined to find a way to make it work. He received some government funding through the Northern Ontario Heritage Funding project and purchased two robots two years ago. He has a stock of parts, four cameras and an Internet connection. He can call up his barn from anywhere and see his cows and the robots in the barn.

While it took two or three years to develop this system, he has had good luck with it so far. The Lely technician visits him four times a year and he has been able to deal with any problems that have arisen using the cameras and the telephone. He has not required an emergency visit from the technician yet.

Mooney says that the cows are quieter now that he is using a robot for milking. He spends more time just walking among them and watching. “Cows are a lot like people,” he says. “Older cows were harder to train to go into the robot, but the younger ones caught on a lot quicker.”

The udder health of his cows has improved - something he didn’t expect - and after about six months of using the robot, his SCC was less than half what it had been in his original tie stall barn.

Would Lechleitner install a robot if he were starting again? While he and his wife are spending more time in the barn than before, he still says the robots have the edge because a parlour demands that labour be available strictly at set times during the day. Jacob also points out that they do not have the latest design in robots and that the machines have improved a lot, even in the past three years. Mooney agrees. “Five years in robotics is an eternity,” he says.

The changes he has made in the barn have also made Lechleitner more optimistic about the system overall. “My hopes are climbing up again,” he says. BF