Robotic dairy – future of farming
• Ally and Robert Arnold and their kelpie Dusty with their new Lely robotic dairy system installed at their property in Lilydale.
July 19, 2023
By Taylor Clyne
A new dairy being built on Robert and Ally Arnold’s farm at Lilydale is breaking fresh ground in more ways than one.
The couple is commissioning a new robotic dairy on their property and splitting their nearly 500 strong herd in two to milk in their former herringbone system and with the new state of the art robots.
It’s the second of its kind in the North-East corner, with the investment not only bringing their operation into the digital future but aiding labour shortages.
Ally Arnold said the herd had outgrown their herringbone system and they were looking for innovative ways to farm for
the future.
“Milking was taking up to eight hours a day in the herringbone with 470 cows, we needed to make a change.
“Due to the shape of our farm, where the cows could walk and for how long we chose to split the herd and install robots to milk our autumn milkers,” she said.
After much research and visiting other robotic operations in the state the couple opted to install Lely, one of the three brand options available to farmers.
“We chose Lely as they are the original creators of robots, and the local service centre is close to us so if something goes down, they can get here the quickest.
“Also, the features of their robot really stood out to us.
“It reads cell count, fat and protein on individual cows and they were competitive on price.”
The Arnolds have installed three devices with one robot to an 80-cow ratio roughly.
“Under the new systems our cows will milk up to three times a day or every eight hours and they will have access to dairy at all times.
“For the past few weeks our herd has been in training, I’ve really enjoyed this process and proud to say they have adapted quickly,” Mrs Arnold said.
“The first time we put the collars on them they bucked like bulls for half an hour, some swung in lots of circles and tried to kick them off but after that settled perfectly.”
Mrs Arnold said a simple task like teaching the herd to walk through one way gates was an interesting process and then learning to walk through the robot system.
“It took two hours the first day but by day two it was only 15 minutes.
“We are also altering our grazing system to reflect three-way grazing which will be new for us and will just be a work in process changing fences and paddocks as we go.”
Mrs Arnold said her husband Robert has been the brains behind the whole change over.
“We don’t have a huge issue with labour shortages at the moment but it’s affecting everybody in all industries.
“With the robots we believe it will be the equivalent to one full time wage and a lot less pressure on everybody – ideally, we are trying to get back to our work life balance and have some time off farm again.”
Other things to consider with the robot is the saving of electricity prices and water.
“It’s going to be a lot cheaper; it has a different cooling system and uses far less electricity not to mention less water.”
Mrs Arnold said her favourite aspect of the whole system is its better for the animals welfare.
“It improves lameness, mastitis, less pressure on the herd from motorbikes when they can come in at their own speed and the motivation to get target food from the robot.
“They will be a much happier herd.”
The Arnold’s Lely robotic system will come online officially today with the future of dairy farming expanding throughout the North-East region.