Installing a robotic milking machine can require modest changes to the buildings, but significant changes around the yard and farm.

That’s how it worked out for the Von Teichman family of Ashford, Co Wicklow. They installed a Lely Astronaut machine in July 2013, and a second in January 2014. The cows are now milking happily in the system. When I called by recently, Christian Von Teichman showed me around.

With robotic milking, the cows themselves decide when to enter the parlour for milking. Some incentives are generally required. In-parlour feeding is the main one.

A second is rearranging roads so that cows must pass through the parlour yard to access fresh grazing: an A/B paddock system. Once a cow enters the parlour yard, the robotic milker will identify her and can decide if she is due to be milked before letting her out to fresh grazing.

Christian explained that robotic milking requires changes to the farm roadways and fencing. The cows are never fenced into a paddock. They have 24-hour access to the parlour. Clearly, they must be kept away from the dwelling house, any roads used by tractors and the milk lorry, the public road, etc.

Further, an A/B paddock system means that every paddock has a route into the parlour and a separate route back out. That requires either splitting cow tracks or making new ones. At the moment, Christian is giving the cows a paddock change every 12 hours.

Picture one

The two-storey building housed the old parlour with a large loft on top. It is now empty. A side wall was taken down and a new lean-to built at the side to roof over the two robotic milkers. It’s 23m (75 feet) long and spans 5m (16 feet). The area where the jeep is parked was the old collecting yard. Now the open area to the left is the new parlour yard.

Picture two

This is the way cows enter the yard in summer for milking. An A/B paddock system requires one entrance/exit point for the parlour yard, with electronic identification. It’s a double gate system – eg, cows will arrive from an A paddock and go out to a B paddock. Cows that are due to be milked will not be let out until they have gone through the robot.

Picture three

Cows enter into the parlour yard through this one-way Texas gate.

Picture four

When a cow enters the milker box, her neck collar is automatically read by an infrared tag reader. If she is due to be milked, the gate shuts behind her and feed is dispensed according to yield.

At the back of the box, over the cow, is a 3D camera which controls the milking process. It monitors her movements and guides the central arm under the cow.

Picture five

The arm has a teat detection system which uses lasers to locate the individual teats. A rotating brush then cleans the teats and stimulates milk let-down, after which the cluster is attached.

On the floor of the unit is a weigh platform that measures the cow’s weight.

Picture six

This is the old parlour. It now serves as the clean area behind the robot milkers. Christian can come in here to check operation of the machine. The pit is still there, but the milking machine is now in service in Co Cork. We can see the gap where the side wall of the parlour stood. There are now three pillars supporting the roof overhead.

Picture seven

This is the Lely Grazeway exit gate, with a sensor to identify each cow. After milking, a cow will be let out. A cow that is due to be milked will not be allowed through. All of the farm’s paddocks must be accessible from this gate. This led to some rerouting of roadways.

Picture eight

Most of the farm roads have been reorganised. On the left is a new roadway, divided in the middle into in and out routes. At all times, to get from one grazed paddock to a fresh one, cows will have to come by one of these roads to the parlour yard and exit to the paddock via the other road.

Even if the cows are moving to a paddock next door, they must still do so by walking through the parlour yard.

The route of the milk lorry has also been changed. It exits the yard via the wide road here on the right.

Picture nine

Under the previous set-up, a cow roadway ran out from the yard, through these two trees and on to the paddocks. However, this section of road became redundant and was taken up. Topsoil was spread and seeded and the ground regained for grazing. A new section of roadway was made to take cows from the yard drafting gate out to the paddocks on this side of the farm.

Picture 10

The Von Teichman family is milking over 100 high-yielding Holstein Freisian cows outside Ashford in Co Wicklow. With the labour efficiency of the robotic milkers, Christian plans to increase herd size to near 150 cows while continuing as a one-man operation.

All heifer calves are contract-reared off-site and return to the farm as two-year-olds every January to settle in before calving.

“Two years ago, I was preparing to upgrade the milking set-up here to a 24-unit parlour. I decided to visit a number of farms with robotic milkers – more or less to discount the idea of them working on my farm. Instead, I came home with the very opposite viewpoint.”

Chrisitan bought his robotic milkers from the Lely Center in Mullingar. They drafted the plans, installed, commissioned and started the milkers.

Cost

Rearranging roadways cost the Von Teichmans €15,000 – helped by having a quantity of shale available on farm. Fencing costs, mostly along new roads, were €3,000. Rearranging the old parlour, building the new lean-to plus new effluent channels, etc, came to €30,000.

Depending on specification, the price of a Lely Astronaut robot milker varies from €120,000 to €145,000 plus VAT. If needed, a second will cost €90,000 to €100,000 as it utilises the central systems of the first one.