More than 100 dairy farmers and service providers from across Australia, with a few overseas visitors, attended the Lely Australia Connect, Care and Grow conference, held in Gippsland in late July.
The primary regions for installation of Lely robot milking units (RUs) in Australia are Tasmania, South Australia and Gippsland.
The bulk of these installations are in Tasmania and Victoria.
Gippsland was the place of origin of the first Lely RU installation in Australia, in 2001, at the farm of Max and Evelyn Warren, who installed four Lely Astronaut A2 units at Winnindoo. They milked 300 cows.
It was a world-first in operating RUs in a pasture-based milking situation.
As well as running their dairy farm, Max and Evelyn Warren created a tourism operation where visitors could see the robot milking machinery in operation, as well as view and operating a small scale of the farm.
In 2004, they won the Hugh Mackay Innovation Award for their business.
A few years later, Max and Evelyn replaced their units with four Lely Astronaut A3 milking robots.
They have since sold that dairy farm, but those units are still in service, on the share farm of Wild Dog Dairy in Scotchtown, Tasmania, operated by Josh Bishop and Rowan Stokes.
Gippsland has always been a growth area for RUs.
Ten years ago, 14 per cent of Australian dairy farms with RUs were located in Gippsland. Lely was a significant contributor to that number.
“There are now 275 Lely RUs installed and operating in Australia, with an average of five milking robots per farm,” Lely Oceania and Asia marketing manager Rene van Dalen said.
“Tasmania and Victoria have the bulk of the installs, with approximately 220 RUs.
“In the last three years, we’ve seen a very high increase in interest in robotic milking.
“In South Australia, we have installed more than 40 RUs in the past three years.
“People see them working well on their neighbours’ farms.
“We’re expecting interest to continue to grow in the next few years.”
There are now Lely service centers in five Australian states, installing and providing support to farmers in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.
At the conference, Lely recognised a cohort of Australian dairy farmers milking at least 500 cows with RUs, joining them to the global Red Cow membership.
There were several attendees attending the conference because they were considering installing RUs.
Michael and Oscar Kowald from Mt Torrens, South Australia, are converting their dairy farm to RUs.
“We’re about 80 per cent along with the conversion to install two units,” Michael said.
Pauline, Marcus and Ella Young operate a herringbone dairy system at Ridgley, Tasmania.
They were at the conference to listen and see what was happening on other farms.
“We’re milking 400 cows twice a day in a herringbone dairy,” Marcus said.
“There’s three generations of us involved in the farm.
“We’re at the conference because we’re thinking about how to change to robot units.”
A local participant in the farm tours was Al Grant, who has a dairy farm at Warragul South.
“I’m still milking 200 cows in a rotary dairy, but I thought it would be good to have a look at these systems,” he said.
A consistent consideration for attendees to switch to RUs was to bypass labour issues.
One of the farm tours was hosted by Leesa and Grant Williams, Willora Farms at Hallora, Victoria.
They first invested in Lely Astronaut A3 robots in 2009, upgrading them in 2013 to Astronaut A4s.
Then in 2021, they installed their second suite of RUs, the Astronaut A5s, alongside their rotary platform.
They now operate 10 RUs across their two farms, milking a combined 600 cows.
Leesa and Grant operate the longest running robotic dairy farm in Australia.
Leesa said the spread and number of dairy farms created a strong support network.
“With so many RU farmers around now, if someone in the network has a personal problem, there’s always someone who can step in and help if you unexpectedly need to leave the farm for a while,” she said.
Her son was able to manage another farm when the owner was hospitalised, because he understood how the RUs worked.
The other farm tour was hosted by Mel and Luke Wallace, Wallacedale, Poowong North.
They installed three Lely Astronaut A5 robots to milk 210 cows, replacing a herringbone system that milked 160 cows.
“Twelve months to the day after installation we knew it was the right thing to do,” Luke said.
The couple recently returned from a holiday together overseas. Mel said the holiday was a direct result of changing their system after installing the RUs.
Luke had also started running marathons.
Globally, this year Lely has installed its 50,000th RU, a growth of 30,000 units in the past decade.
Lely Australia cluster manager Wil van Vorstenbosch told conference attendees the future of the dairy industry relied on farming practices that received the approval of consumers.
“The farm of the future needs to provide opportunities for consumers to engage in conversations about improved environments, animal welfare, and the origins of sustainable and nutritious dairy products,” he said.
“Lely systems enable farmer prosperity while achieving those consumer expectations.”
One example is how Lely systems have changed according to geographic interest.
The original design was based on European dairy systems, with cows barn-housed for a significant portion of the year.
Wil said moving into markets in New Zealand and Australia had caused the company to change its systems to suit a pasture grazed system.
Lely the company is still privately owned by the same family – they are descendants of brothers Cornelis and Arij van der Lely, who founded it in 1948 in the Netherlands.
“Many innovations later, Lely is focused on dairy automation related products, all aimed at making our farmers’ lives easier,” Wil said.
The conference saw presentations from Lely, DLL and Rabobank staff, a farmer panel, and visits to two dairy farms in West Gippsland.
For photo galleries from both days of the conference, go to: www.dairynewsaustralia.com.au