Some 170 cows are being milked and fed automatically on this dairy farm which is run by three brothers near Rotterdam in Holland.
Practically all the work on this farm is done by a Lely robot of some sort allowing the three brothers to work off-farm also.
There are three Lely Astronaut A5s for milking, two Lely Discoverys for scraping cubicles, a Lely Vector for feeding silage, a Lely Cosmix for feeding meal and a Lely Juno for pushing in silage.
The three-brother partnership is farming 100ha of land. Some 85ha are in grass and 15ha are in maize, yielding 45t DM.
The cows, who are all Holstein Friesians, are doing 11,000l per year with 4.2 fat and 3.6 protein.
Six silage cuts have been made this year to date on the farm where it is ensiled in six separate silage clamps.
This farm also has 1,100 solar panel on the roof which produces enough electricity for them to sell back to the grid.
The barn where all the cows are kept year-round.
Cows entering the Lely Astronaut to be milked.
The six silage clamps in the yard.
Lely Vector filling up with silage before distribution throughout the barn.
All the freshly-born calves are kept in these hutches for two weeks. The bulls are then sold and the heifers are put into a pen.
One of the Astronaut A5s in action.
A pen of heifer calves
One of the Astronaut A5s in action.
Some 170 cows are being milked and fed automatically on this dairy farm which is run by three brothers near Rotterdam in Holland.
Practically all the work on this farm is done by a Lely robot of some sort allowing the three brothers to work off-farm also.
There are three Lely Astronaut A5s for milking, two Lely Discoverys for scraping cubicles, a Lely Vector for feeding silage, a Lely Cosmix for feeding meal and a Lely Juno for pushing in silage.
The three-brother partnership is farming 100ha of land. Some 85ha are in grass and 15ha are in maize, yielding 45t DM.
The cows, who are all Holstein Friesians, are doing 11,000l per year with 4.2 fat and 3.6 protein.
Six silage cuts have been made this year to date on the farm where it is ensiled in six separate silage clamps.
This farm also has 1,100 solar panel on the roof which produces enough electricity for them to sell back to the grid.
The barn where all the cows are kept year-round.
Cows entering the Lely Astronaut to be milked.
The six silage clamps in the yard.
Lely Vector filling up with silage before distribution throughout the barn.
All the freshly-born calves are kept in these hutches for two weeks. The bulls are then sold and the heifers are put into a pen.
One of the Astronaut A5s in action.
A pen of heifer calves
One of the Astronaut A5s in action.
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