Farmer Focus: Robot training prepares heifers for milking

Third cut was due today (mid-July), but having had less than 5mm of rain since second cut, there is nothing worth cutting.

Thunderstorms are forecast tomorrow, so if they come, everything will get a good drink.

In my experience, though, rain due when you want it tends to be less than predicted, while rain due when you don’t tends to be more.

See also: How to train heifers in robotic milking systems

About the author

Tom Hildreth

Livestock Farmer Focus writer Tom Hildreth and family grow grass and maize for the 130-cow herd of genomically tested 11,000-litre Holsteins near York supplying Arla. The Hildreths run a café, ice cream business and milk vending machine on the farm.

Read more articles by Tom Hildreth

We are right in the middle of our busy calving period and are rapidly running out of space.

We are emptying and refilling the individual pens weekly, and calf space is becoming a valuable commodity.

Fortunately, this is the last year we will struggle with calf housing, as the new shed will be finished by the end of the year.

A new task for this year is training heifers to use the robots.

Some take to it very well, but some haven’t quite made the connection between the box and food.

We have found that by bringing the heifers home a month before their due date helps to get them used to robots, cubicles and slats.

Having them live with the cows for a week, with milking settings in “training mode”, allows the heifers to get food in the robots and the robot arm to move near them.

By the time they calve down, most heifers will walk into the robot without too much persuasion.

Even though we have been getting up towards 30C a few times this summer, milk yield is keeping around the 42kg/day mark, regardless of outside temperature.

I have to put that down to our recent investment in fans, which appear to be working for us.

We have nine fans over the cubicles and two over the robots.

These are all linked to software to monitor the temperature and humidity, and to vary the speed of the fans accordingly. This means they only use as much power as needed.

Not only does the investment make a pleasant living environment for the cows, it also makes a pleasant work environment for us.

While the drought has been hindering the farming side of the business, ice cream has not been a bad business to be in.