Robotic milkers give cows best of both worlds

Installing robot milkers is an idea rarely entertained by grazing enthusiasts. However, Hampshire dairy producer Matt Gosden believes both have the potential to work well together.

“Keen grazers should not dismiss voluntary milking systems (VMS) – there is no reason why robots cannot work on any system provided the right mentality is there,” he says.

Because the heavy soils at Godards Farm, Hook, are prone to early-grass burn-off, extensive grazing has never been an option for the herd of 70 pedigree Jerseys, however, Mr Gosden has proved robots do not have to limit cows from going out to grass.

“When we installed the robot about 18 months ago, we could have chosen to keep cows in all year. But we didn’t want to do that. I like seeing cows at grass.”

Automatic selection gates were added to the robot system to allow eligible cows to graze the 12ha (30 acres) of pasture surrounding the main shed.

“The gates allow cows to go outside after they have been milked. When an animal has milking permission or will need to be milked within two hours, she won’t be able to go out. They soon learn when the pasture gate doesn’t open, they need to be milked,” he says.

Cows go through one-way push gates from the straw-bedded area onto the feed passage. Automatic gates at one end select when an animal needs to be milked or let back onto the lying area.

After milking, cows are filtered into the feed passage where they can choose to go back though the gates into the straw yard or out through the pasture gates at the other end of the feed area.

“We try to get as much as we can from grass, with cows going out from March to October in a normal year,” explains Mr Gosden.

However, because this year has been far from normal, cows were housed in late August and received 14kg DM a head a day of the full winter ration.

Losing 70 acres of rented grassland this year has also meant young stock and dry cows have been brought back to the farm, limiting the grazing platform for the milking herd. “We always have to buffer feed, but cows usually receive about half this amount before June because they are getting more from grass.

“When it is possible to graze, stock only have the option to go out to grass during the day with the pasture gate switched on from 6am until about 9.30pm.

“I trialled 24-hour grazing this year, but because it was so hot, intakes and fertility dropped and a lot of cows chose to stay inside anyway.

“Installing pasture gates costs an additional £2000-£3000 to the robot, so it is worth it.”

Key to successfully grazing cattle on robots is teaching animals correctly, believes Mr Gosden. “It took the cows about four weeks to learn how to use the robots and go out to grass. In the first week we had three people pushing them through. This then reduced to one person, and now we only have to push them in from grass once a day at 9.30pm.

“Learning to push the one-way gates was one of the biggest challenges, but now this has become second nature.

“You need to invest time in training, but it is worth it. Chasing cows is a dirty word now – when you chase cows every day, they learn they have to be chased.”

Grazing while using robots does not have to be limited by the size of herd or paddock location, says Mr Gosden.

“In Holland, there are systems where cows are grazed up to a mile away from the robot. As long as cows are trained well and good tracks are in place, there is no reason why it can’t work well.

“I would like to expand the herd to include six robots, with 140 cows for every two machines. But I would still want cows to go out to grass.”

Mr Gosden also aims to increase yields from 5500 litres a cow a year to 7000 litres a cow a year. “Selective breeding, culling and better use of grass and forage will help us achieve this and hopefully the pasture gate will play a role and help ahcieve these goals.”