Growing demand in the field of automated milking

The cows won’t milk themselves. How many times has that phrase been muttered by farmers over the years as they drag themselves away from matches or social events for the evening milking?

But now cows are milking themselves, or least they are standing still and allowing robots to milk them.

There is a growing interest in automated milking as evidenced by the thousands of people who watch the annual robotic demonstrations by Lely Ireland at the National Ploughing Championships. They see cows ambling over to cubicles whenever they feel like being milked. Gates spring open to let them in. Robotic arms reach out to clean their udders and the milking clusters attach themselves to the cows' teats.

When they are finished milking, the gates open to release the animals. Electronic collars around the cows’ necks record information which can be accessed on the farmer’s device of choice.

Sales

Lely Ireland says it has sold more than 300 automated units, north and south and most of those sales have been in the past five or six years. “There’s been a major increase in demand in the last eight to 10 years in Ireland and sales have grown exponentially since,” said Lely’s sales manager

Aidan Fallon

. “The potential in Ireland is phenomenal. We expect that half of new milking equipment sold in Ireland will be automated equipment within the next few years.”

He thinks people are looking for more flexibility as they expand and move towards shared milking and partnership arrangements. “Farmers tell us they want to free up time to manage other parts of their business such as their cows’ welfare, breeding, calving and grazing management. They want to remove themselves from the repetitive chore of milking and make better use of their time.”

Not having to get up at 6am must also be an attraction? “That’s a very big help too,” Mr Fallon said.

Cost is a big factor but he says it’s not as expensive as people may think. The installation of one robot, which milks between 60 and 70 cows, costs between €130,000 and €145,000 although there is a big variation on price depending on specifications.

Customer base

“We’re finding that our main customer base is the traditionally family farm, buying one, two or three robots,” he said.

While some people associate robotic milking with cows housed indoors, he says up to 90 per cent of sales in the Republic are for cows on a grass-based system. After three days of encouragement by the farmer, and routing gates to direct them, 75 per cent of cows go to the robots on their own.

The interest in automated milking has boosted business for Lely Ireland, which is based in Nurney, Co Kildare. “Within Lely Ireland and the Lely centres around the country we have taken on almost 30 people ranging from sales to farm management support to engineering in the last three to four years,” Mr Fallon said.