Has anyone had any expirience with robots or heard any good or bad things??? What is the general perception out there is thier use good or bad?

I have recently been on a trip to Denmark where I stayed at an Agricultural college. During my visit, I was fortunate to visit a farm that used robotic milkers. They had 120 cows and 2 robots, I got to watch them in action. The cows seemed very relaxed, and the robots were amazingly accurate and gentle. In my own opinion, robots definately have their place as they can increase yields by more frequent milking, build more detailed accurate records, let the cows work to their own pace, no hurrying them about and squeezing them into collecting yards, each cow is only away from the feed and water for a few minutes, and the farmer is then much more free to get on with other tasks. On the Danish farm, the farmer could run the whole farm on his own including followers with minimal hassle and rushing about. However, I think robots are best suited to year round housed herds. It would not suit grazing based systems as cows will need constant access to the milking unit and this can make grazing systems difficult to manage. Also when the cows are away from the farmstead most the time, it is good for the stockman to be able to look at every cow each day I think. It seems to me that robotic milkers are no more liable to break down than normal parlours and you get a warning if anything seems slightly wrong. Robots save on labour and once up and running do not cost much more than a conventional system. The farmer in Denmark chose the system as he developed shoulder problems and did not want to employ a herdsman. He has been very impressed with the robots.

You got that totally right. That just sounds exactly like our farm. We started in September with 2 robots on our 120 cows and everything is so easy, no stress no problem. I'm so happy with and can't belive how well its all working. You say they break down more? Why's that? I've had no bother, a lot less to go wrong than in a normal parlour. I'm glad your reply is of a positive nature, so many people dissmiss the whole thing through ignorance!

Please be extremely careful when considering putting in a robot. Last summer after 12 months of investigation, I as Chairman of the WFU Dairy committee issued a warning through the agricultural press about the serious problems some producers were experiencing after having installed one particular make of robot. Farmers have thousands and thoiusands of pounds through no fault of their own, having installed this machine. The problems are WORLDWIDE. We have uncovered horror stories in Europe and N. America of farmers making massive losses. The case at this moment is in the hands of solicitors. I am in weekly contact with one of the farmers and we are investigating rumours that a robtic company has gone into liquidation in Europe last week which could have serious implications for the UK. Please do your homework before installing one of these machines. If you do,under no circumstances should you consider removing your old system until the robot is working well without any problems for a reasonable length of time.I and my committe are not anti-technology - far from it, our industry's future relies on it, but sadly I have met and spoken with many farmers' whose lives and business' have been ruined by it. Not all the systems are bad, but if the company selling the robot cannot or will not provide you with the names and addresses of at least eight farmers whom they claim are happy with the system LEAVE WELL ALONE.

i watched a vidio on robotic milking in class the other week cows seam to like it as they can be milked as and when they want this encreases yeilds the machines are experimentle at this stage and have many parts that go wrong easily they cost nearly a million pounds a pice so are not recomended for small dairys.

As an ex robot multi box user I have only bad experiences about the machine. This does not apply to all machines some are working very well but one model just has not come up to expectation unless you run under capacity in other words if you have a two box it says it will cope with 90 cows well it could not cope with our 75. It works if you have 60 or under cows but whether you see an increase in production I do cannot say. In one year of operation I think we only had one week that we did not need to call out the engineers. You just could not trust the machine. As time goes on I am sure that robots will improve but they still have a long way to go. The multi boxes have more to go wrong than the single boxes. We were on shut down from the ministry because of hygiene muck on the clusters and in the boxes could not stay in the A band for hygiene, had to cull far to many cows and lost over 1000 litres per cow in one year, even though we had no problem in the cows coming through the system they just got annoyed when ready to let their milk down then the cluster would fall of and the machine would have to start again sometimes as many as 8 times. Our costs soared out electricity trebled water doubled and the phone doubled as well because of the bleeper going off all the time because of break downs. We had to clean more often than in a conventional parlour and it was just never clean as the next cow in would much it up again, and the bleeper kept going off when cows just stopped in the passage way. It was a total nightmare The best day of our lives was the day we turned the robot off and have not looked back since our milk went up by 150 litres a day immediatley and we were back in the A band bactoscan under 20 and cells now under 150. The machine nearly ruined our life. A word to farmers who are thinking about putting one in do not remove your old parlour what ever until you are happy with the results you are getting. Go and see as many different sites as possible to see which layoutwould best suit you and the best way is to zero graze as when the cows go out they do not want to come back in to be milked in the summer. When the salesman talks you into buying one the only machines you want to see are ones that are over a year old and up to capacity cow wise and have had a increase in milk yield. By that time they will have had a hygiene inspection and will be able to tell you if they passed. Go into building costs because the single box does not need alot of major work to get it up and running compared to the multi box which can take in excess of three months and the costs of the building work could be nearly the cost of a single box so be careful make sure you buy the right machine I did not and I am regretting it. I am one of the farmers involved in the legal battle again the company.

I had a Robert once working for me, we used to call him Cooperman, he was useless. I cannot say what other Roberts are like but I wouldn't trust 'Coop' with a task like milking. Hope this helps. :)

Tim,i have been looking at robots for about 9 months now and have decided the single box type(red ones like yours i belive ) to be best ,have travelled around the country looking at different makes but muti-box type i did not like,was over in wales the other day where 2 single box ones are up and running with 2 more planned and the system looks fine.I am thinking of installing one in autumn but we are on straw yards at present and not quite sure if it works ok ,any feedback please .would think the system works best on housed year round.

Get in touch if you like its the best way to find out more email me direct at Tim.Gibson@farming.co.uk and I'll email you my number or ring Alan Clay at Lely Milking Equipment on 07775511264 and he will speak to you and put you in touch with me. I'm in North Yorkshire, all I can say is come and look around, everyone who has seen our layout is convinced - we plan to turn out as normal, but also do some zero grazing as I have too many cows for the grazing I have and usually buy in silage to buffer with, this year I'm renting grass. Straw yards seem to work as well as cubicle systems, speak to Ben Price near Shrewsbury?? he has 3 lelys working on straw but has just gone to cubicles, not sure why but prob to make more room as he wants to get up to 5 robots. Thanks for your genuine interest, Tim Gibson

yea used to have one when I wasa boy, batteries ran out, or could have bin me sister stole um fer er handheld

I'm sorry you may have taken my comment the wrong way, I can fully understand exactly how you must feel. I just don't like seeing all robots branded as the same. I don't think there is much more our firm could do to improve things, maybe some softwear hear and there, but overall I would disagree where you said "robots have a long way to go" but I understand you probably meant the type you had. I notice from your comment you have found the opposite with your machine to what we have found! Our scc dropped, milk has risen 1000+, electric and water as up slightly - only due to more electric being used at peak rate (on 24 hrs)no more quantity, and cows are drinkning more as they are giving more. The interesting thing you say is that you had to clean up more. We have less muck to clean up, It must be due to the stress your cows were subjucted to in those horrible crates. They were the main thing that put us off buying a .. ....... Our single box is level with the floor in the rest of the building, no steps or "foot wells" so clean and easy to keep clean. It amazes me how 2 machines doing the same job could be so different, and how our firm arn't jumping up and down shouting about how crap the .. ....... machine is. If only they told people of the problems .. ....... are having more people could have been using the good type. Your firm told me all the bad things about ours but no1 ever said anthing about theirs being bad until after I had ordered a single box. I appritiate the good job you are doing saving people from falling into the same trap you were tricked into, I just wish for your sake it had never happened, I was horrified when all these people started ringing up to say "you havent ordered a .. ....... have you?" I was so glad I hadn't! Tim Gibson Tim.Gibson@farming.co.uk

I personally think that robotic milking is the way forward and that to invest in robotic milking is a sound choice and should not cause you financial losses. Quite the opposite in fact, yields should increase, health problem should decrease due to less stress on the cow.

I agree that if you are making such an investment you should, as i am sure any sane person would, do your homework. The results of your homework will more than likely convince you that robots are reliable, safe and cost effective. They are not for everyone however and will not suit every type of farm. Anyone can put a robot in and it will work ok. With this kind of investment it needs to work amazingly. Planning is key. You must get the cow traffic correct. Your dealer should assist you with this.

I personally think that Robots are the way forward.

Hi Matey,

 if you are looking at robots you should also look at the blue ones as well as the red ones. Good Luck

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Hi, can you get in touch with me, we are a small dairy farm looking for information on multibox robots. Thanks dankumuka@yahoo.co.uk

put a rotary in mate that way you will know your cows have been milked properly and you will still free up alot of hours in your day we milk 300 cows through a 50 millfoss and only spend 5.5 hours a day doing so and thats one man .and we are milking them 3 times a day your will get the increase in yield then as well we have gone up 17 % in 4 months