Friday, March 29, 2024

Robots to put on a show

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Farmers visiting the Southern Field Days at Waimumu this month won’t be able to get away from the milking.
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But they’ll be able to see how robots can do it for them. In a New Zealand first Lely will have a live milking show using a robotic system.

It has done milkings at shows in other countries including Australia and Ireland and now has robotic systems on farms in NZ.

The systems are still in relatively early days here but the firm is pleased with the progress and the way the robotics are fitting in to NZ farm systems, Lely sales and marketing manager Trent Finlay says.

He’s keen on dispelling the myth the systems work only in northern hemisphere barn operations.

In NZ there are Lely robotics on straight pasture systems in Waikato, barn and pasture systems in Canterbury and pasture with wintering barns in Southland. Another is going into a wholly barn system in Havelock North this year.

Finlay says the robotic systems stack up well in cost against a high-tech rotary and produce immediate gains in reduced labour costs.

They also produce productivity gains in herds because cows milk on average 2.9 times a day.

Finlay says they also produce what amounts to a herd test every day and free farmers up to concentrate on herd or farm management.

A worker can be left in charge and if anything goes wrong the farmer and the nearest Lely centre are contacted automatically.

The cows being milked at the field days, from February 12 to 14, come from a farm using a Lely Astronaut A4 robotic milking system.

The plan is to run hourly milkings on all three days. Farmers will be able to see how the attachment system works on a live, close-up television display linked to a camera on the robot.

For more visit www.lely.com or www.southernfielddays.co.nz.

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