Demand for robotic milking technologies in NI and Donegal continues to increase, mainly as a result of existing dairy farmers switching from conventional parlours.
Jim Irwin from Lely Centre Eglish said that his team has sold 93 robotic parlours across NI and Donegal this year so far.
“This is the biggest year we have had in robots. We have still another 20 to fit this year and there is a dozen in for next year at this stage, so we have enough to keep us going to March,” he said at an open day in St Johnston, Co Donegal.
Irwin estimates that 75% of the installations are for existing dairy farmers and around a quarter of orders come from new start-ups in dairying.
“The new entrants are generally one robot to start with and see how they get on,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.
“Existing dairy farmers would be generally bigger orders of two or four robots. We had couple of sets of six this year too.”
There has also been a growing demand for grazing gates, which allow cows in robotic systems to walk outside to graze paddocks.
Irwin said that this was coming from robot users who are moving away from fully housed systems, as well as farmers who are new to robots and want to keep grass in cows’ diets from the start.
“[Lely Centre] Mullingar has done a great job on the grazing side and now more and more farmers in the north are looking at grazing as well,” he said.
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Demand for robotic milking technologies in NI and Donegal continues to increase, mainly as a result of existing dairy farmers switching from conventional parlours.
Jim Irwin from Lely Centre Eglish said that his team has sold 93 robotic parlours across NI and Donegal this year so far.
“This is the biggest year we have had in robots. We have still another 20 to fit this year and there is a dozen in for next year at this stage, so we have enough to keep us going to March,” he said at an open day in St Johnston, Co Donegal.
Irwin estimates that 75% of the installations are for existing dairy farmers and around a quarter of orders come from new start-ups in dairying.
“The new entrants are generally one robot to start with and see how they get on,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.
“Existing dairy farmers would be generally bigger orders of two or four robots. We had couple of sets of six this year too.”
There has also been a growing demand for grazing gates, which allow cows in robotic systems to walk outside to graze paddocks.
Irwin said that this was coming from robot users who are moving away from fully housed systems, as well as farmers who are new to robots and want to keep grass in cows’ diets from the start.
“[Lely Centre] Mullingar has done a great job on the grazing side and now more and more farmers in the north are looking at grazing as well,” he said.
Read more
Watch: state-of-the-art robot shed for greenfield site
Farmers apply for €40m worth of robots
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