The cow was at the heart of the decision to install 12 milking robots at Stowell Farms in Wiltshire, where changes have boosted production and long-term sustainability.
In 2022, the farm team realised that building design and milking cows through a rotary was preventing the then 480 cow herd from realising its full potential.
Neil Ridgway, Farm Manager for Stowell Farms, which is a Mole Valley Farmers Focus Farm, says the system needed an overhaul. “The business had to change its ways and be financially sound, and the farm had to be at the forefront of everything that’s good about UK agriculture,” he explains.
This stemmed around reducing cow standing times, improving the cow’s environment and eliminating labour worries. For Neil, robots were a clear solution. “When you talk of cow welfare, milk production and return on investment, it’s a short conversation as far as i’m concerned,” he says.
Consequently, the rotary parlour was ripped out, followed by the existing internal infrastructure in one of the farm’s cubicle sheds. The aim was to create the perfect template for a robotic milking system in this existing framework and then repeat it in the remaining two, identical sheds.
With the support of General Manager, Ian Tossell and Project CoOrdinator, Alistair Cumings from Lely Center Yeovil, they worked to design the system to maximise cow flow and labour efficiencies. This meant plenty of feed and lying space and outdoor loafing area, and comfortable cubicles.
Four robots arranged in two “L” shapes was deemed the most efficient for both labour and cow flow. This reduced the number of passageways and facilitated efficient cow movement.
“It’s optimising cow flow,” Ian explains. “You’re always thinking of the low ranking cow. If she can do it, every cow can do it. You don’t want the cow to need a sat nav to get round,” he explains.
Production efficiencies
Rather than working out the number of robots needed based on cow numbers, Neil also took a different approach with the view to further driving efficiencies per shed. He chose to target 2,000-2,500 litres of production per robot per day and decide on cow numbers accordingly. This steps away from the traditional thinking of having 60 cows per robot.
He explains: “We’re below that 60 cow per robot mark, some are 50 cows per robot. But that’s on the basis that they’re visiting more and achieving higher yields per cow.”
He knew that allowing cows to express their natural behaviour and eat, lie down and milk themselves when they wanted would facilitate an uplift in milk production. So too would careful nutrition and the ability to analyse and act on data through the robot at cow level.
All of the robots were up and running in June 2023. Cows now visit the robots an average of 3.2 times a day, versus twice a day milking on the rotary system. Standing times associated with milking have also dropped from 1.5-2 hours twice a day, to a total of about one hour a day through the robot.
All of these factors have helped support a yield climb from 8,500 litres a cow a year on the rotary system to 11,700 litres a cow a year. Although milk solids have dropped to 4.01% fat and 3.21% protein, total solids per cow have increased.
Nutrition
Such production is driven by a carefully balanced ration, designed by Mole Valley Feed Solutions’ Technical and Sustainability Manager, Dr Matt Witt.
“To achieve production targets per robot, the ration has to deliver. That means carefully balancing the outside ration with what’s fed through the robot and feeding a consistent diet. Quality forage is key to that, together with a quality, bespoke concentrate through the robot,” Matt explains.
The farm team has all of their own silaging equipment allowing them to cut at the optimum time on a multi-cut grass silage system. This drives quality with grass silage commonly analysing at 12ME. Feeding using a self propelled mixer wagon also reduces wastage and maintains consistency, whilst Lely Juno robotic feed pushers ensure cows always have the ration in front of them.
A consistent, high quality forage diet of 46% forage in the dry matter helps maintain rumen health and drive production. The forage component of the ration includes grass, maize and wholecrop silage and straw. Milk from forage, previously at 1,500 litres, has risen to 3,400 litres a cow a year and concentrate feed rate is now 0.28kg/litre.
Ultimately, optimising production from homegrown forage will help lower the ration’s carbon footprint. With Arla incentivising its farmers to lower their environmental impact, this is a key driver for the business.
By using Mole Valley Farmers’ Precision Nutrition rationing software, Matt has also been able to make changes to the diet to meet the farm’s production and environmental targets. This has included removing all soya from the robot concentrate and outside feed.
Labour
All of this has been achieved with a 13 hour reduction in labour requirements for milking each day. Now three people spend two hours a day on tasks associated with milking such as washing down, collecting cows for milking and daily maintenance on the robots. This six hours of time compares to 19 hours on the rotary. Neil says the team is also now higher skilled and focused on cow management. They also have the time to pay attention to detail at cow level.
“That 19 hours on the rotary was people purely looking at two back legs and an udder,” he explains. “Now all the hours spent in the shed, they’re looking at all the cows and can use the information from the robot to assess at individual cow level,” Neil says.
Each shed also has two Lely Discovery robots, which automatically vacuum up slurry and deposit it in a slurry pit. This has removed the need for manual scraping with a tractor and also increased cleaning frequency from twice a day to eight times a day. As cow’s feet are cleaner, foot health has also shown a marked improvement. This has been helped by reduced standing times.
Health
Herd Manager, Chris Gowen says: “We’ve taken a third off lameness and it’s still improving. Digital dermatitis is almost non existent at 5-10% now. But also on top of that, we’re running the footbaths at 3% formalin in the winter and 1% in the summer and cows are run through once a day. We were at 5%, twice a day on the rotary.”
The robots can also analyse an array of data including individual yields, somatic cell counts and quarter milking, as well as cow weights, allowing issues to be addressed early.
Now, the first job of the day is to look at the Health Report which automatically flags up cows for attention. For example, milk conductivity data allows early signs of mastitis to be addressed promptly, before the need for antibiotics.
“The system will flag a cow one day with conductivity issues, you’ll give her non steroidal anti inflammatories and Udder Mint and you won’t see her again,” Neil explains. “The day you don’t give her NSAIDs, the next day she’ll become a full blown mastitis case. We quickly learnt to trust the system.”
Ultimately, Neil believes the new system is more sustainable. “We know what our costs are and the business can grow, block by block using the shed template we’ve developed. We now have a more sustainable business model as cows are happier and more productive, and people want to work for us as it’s a more enjoyable job,” he says.
BOX: Stowell Farms – dairy system overview