A Canterbury corporate farmer today opened a commercial
robotic milking shed on Stradbrook Farm in Mid Canterbury.
The 80ha dairy conversion near Mayfield in mid-Canterbury is
owned by Carr Agricultural Group, and the automation allows
cows to milk themselves at any time of the day or night.
Strip-grazing fences which divide paddocks for efficient use
are run with solar power, and robotic gates open and shut
according to the needs of individual cows.
Even the shed's effluent system turns itself on and off,
filtering the solids from the sludge.
Carr Agricultural Group also owns an agent for an overseas
supplier of dairy equipment and is using the farm as a
technology showcase by milking 280 cows.
It is developing a split-calving operation to keep part of
the dairy herd in lactation all year round to maximise the
use of the robotics.
About 40 out of town guests toured the farm yesterday and
another 200 attended the official opening by Agriculture
Minister Jim Anderton and manufacturer Alexander Lely at
Ashburton.
Carr's agency, Winslow Ltd, has worked closely with the dairy
industry on-farm research group Dexcel, now trading as
DairyNZ, which has spent years developing a research farm
near Hamilton using a different brand of milking robots.
DairyNZ spokesman Bruce Thorrold said the move to introduce
robotic milking in a commercial operation was a "bold step".
Individual animal identification and infra-red light beams
can control how milking robots, and gates react to each cow,
and automatic brushes comfort and massage cows.
Electronic collars even record each cow's chewing pattern to
determine its health status and whether it is getting enough
feed.
The central computer system can text the farmer when it
recognises problems.
Winslow bought four Lely Astronaut A3 milking robots in July
last year and has since become an agent for the brand.
The manufacturer's New Zealand managing director Peter Vis
said the robotic milkers were kinder to cows than traditional
milking, and picked up any health issues a lot more quickly
than some farm workers.
Once all the cows have calved and are trained in the system
the farm will be open to the public for tours from November.
Milking by robot has yet to catch on in Australasia, but in
the northern hemisphere it has already made its mark with
thousands of farms with robotic milking arms in Europe, Japan
and North America.
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