To the untrained eye there is nothing going on in Bruce Dinnington’s milk shed.
There are no staff around, Dinnington is having an easy yarn, and cows are ambling about unhurriedly, waiting their turn for a back scratch on one of two electric brushes.
But a low pneumatic hiss and the constant flow of cows leaving the milk shed, and new ones strolling in, means it’s not holiday time on the farm. Something’s going on.
The untrained eye would also not know what to make of the six Lely robotic milkers, which look like a cross between a cattle crush and the sort of data storage unit you see in a sci-fi movie.
“The cows run the farm, not me. That’s what we’re getting at here,” Dinnington said as another cow calmly exited a robot unit.
“All I have to do is turn up twice a day to change filter socks and hose down. But it’s very flexible as to when that time is.”
In 2017 when the old 50-unit rotary needed to be replaced, Dinnington took the leap and converted to robotic milking, and also added one winter shed, one composting barn to calve in and a calf-rearing shed.
The switch to a robot milker was motivated, among other things, by a desire to reduce staff and go back to “being a family unit”, he said.
The farm had its first taste of automation in 2012 when he bought an automatic calf feeder to make it easier for his mother, Noeline, to rear calves.
Although the robot unit was new to them in 2017, composting pads weren’t a novelty on the farm.
Dinnington’s father, Alan, was also a dairy farmer and housed cows for many years.
In 2000, when they bought a neighbouring property and increased cow numbers, they began housing cows and quickly saw a difference in production, with housed cows outperforming others.
Buying tunnel houses with composting barns was costly, but the production increase from housing more cows the next year paid off the cost of the tunnel houses, Dinnington said.
He believes being outside in winter and on winter crops will break a cow down, and that a cow housed through winter has a longer milking lifespan.
He said having cows in a barn also eliminates some of the rules and regulations, such as wintering plans that now need consenting.
One driver for using composting barns was to prevent pasture damage in spring and autumn.
In Dinnington’s old system he fed a lot of baleage, and as a result had a lot of trampling damage to paddocks.
“Paddocks had to be regrassed. It’s all money.”
Dinnigton said other farmers in the region who also use barns grow 30%+ more grass, just because they have less pasture damage through trampling.
On his own farm he feeds a quarter to a fifth less supplement as a result.
Keeping a cow warm in winter also means she eats to produce milk, and doesn’t eat to keep herself warm first.
Dinnigton said the robot system revolves around feeding.
Once a cow is milked she leaves the shed and a gate automatically directs her to a new block every six hours.
“They know roughly what time to come in to get milked, and then they go out to a fresh break of grass. The entry gates are always open and they come in when they feel like it, have a full udder or want to feed.”
Paddocks are broken into six feed breaks, with a paddock grazed over six days.
After that cows start eating regrowth.
Controlling break size is important as cows in this system who are overfed “don’t come home”, and those who are underfed start roaming and coming into the barn often to eat supplements, he said.
All baleage is grown on the farm, with grain imported.
Grain and soy are fed as cows need it, with extra soy fed in autumn and winter to fulfil cows higher protein needs.
A robotic unit is slightly more expensive than a rotary unit that has all the bells and whistles, he said.
But the cost comes with many rewards.
High-producing cows visit the barn two or three times per day.
Top cows produce between 60 and 70 litres of milk per day, with a 45l average peak for spring and autumn calvers.
Mastitis has decreased significantly with the use of the robot.
The robot measures milk production per teat from every cow, with a full herd test and data on volume, and fat and protein percentages recorded for every cow at every milking.
The robot also gives a full cell count of each individual quarter at every milking and measures the temperature, so identifying mastitis is easy.
Collars on every cow act as a pedometer and also measure how much cows chew the cud, which in turn dictates how fibre in their diets has to be increased or decreased, he said.
The collar also shows when a cow is in heat.
Dinnington said herd health has improved as a result, with other factors also contributing.
With no handling of cows, no hierarchical pushing and shoving, and less hurried walking to and from the shed, there is less stress in the home environment, he said.
“If we get lower stress, we get lower somatic cell counts, increased fertility, and less lameness”.
Dinnington said there was a 10% to 15% production increase after he switched from a conventional system.
This was achieved with no other changes to his system.
Additional changes, such as split calving and 18-month calve intervals, saw another jump in production.
He attributes gains to lower stress levels.
Grain and molasses are fed by the robot during milking. The robot does not “dump the feed all at once”, but spreads a cow’s ration over 80% of her milking time.
Spreading the feed means a cow’s “attention is kept” and milking is less stressful, he said.
It also means there is less spoilage.
Dinnington has specific criteria that he inputs into the system, which determines how much a cow is fed. In short, a higher producing cow is fed more than a lower producing cow.
“The robot knows how often she was milked today, how long she’s in the box and how much milk she’s given.”
The six robots need three services a year, done by technicians.
Most breakdowns are easy to fix, but technicians are needed for some, he said.
“We can’t afford to have a robot down.”
The herd has just been reduced from 600 to 350 cows, with ease of operations at the forefront of the decision, he said.
A spring and autumn split calf operation is focused on keeping cows healthy.
High yielding cows produce about 750kg of milk solids per cow per year.
Cows calve every 18 months.
“Having a six-month break between calving and mating is beneficial to the cow, especially young heifers, as it gives them a chance to recover from calving and puts a bit of condition back on them.”
“It adds years to her life. In a normal system a cow’s virtually in calf her whole life. That basically just sucks the life out of a cow.”
All cows are artificially inseminated. None are mated until six months after calving. If a cow doesn’t take then she gets another chance six months later, he said.
Cows are on a 450-day lactation, but are not mated until they drop under 40l.
For 10% to 15% of the cows in his herd, this means they are mated only every two years.
The farm is self-contained, with all young stock on farm and all wintering on farm.
“They’re the future, you need to be in control of them,” Dinnington said.
Dinnington made a move to World Wide Sires American genetics 20 years ago.
The northern hemisphere mostly breeds high-yielding cows and he saw that once he reached 35l production per day, the central ligament on the udders of cows with Kiwi genetics were damaged.
Once he switched to genetics from higher producing cows, with stronger central ligaments, the problem disappeared.
Dinnington’s sister Sheryl Horrell raises all the bull calves for slaughter.
After he transitioned to a robotic system Dinnington reduced his staff and cow numbers.
The drop in cows means he needs one to one and a half fewer labour units, which amounts to about $80,000 every year, he said.
When Dinnington needs time off, a relief unit easily fills the role.
Young tech-savvy relief workers “catch on very quickly”, he said, and in case he worries he can oversee what is happening via a phone app.
As he gets older this system allows him to manage the farm for much longer.
“It saves wear and tear on the body. Once you’ve been in the cowshed for 30 or 40 years your knees and hips are gone. It prolongs your farm life. The cold also doesn’t help arthritis either. I can now fully open my hands for the first time in a long while,” he said.
As he isn’t tied to two milkings a day, it also gives him a lifestyle.
