The farmer panel at the Lely conference in Gippsland represented a diversity of dairy farmers who have installed Lely robot milking units.
It comprised Lisa and Shawn Vening from Hedley in Victoria, Asher Jacobs from Fleerieu in South Australia and John van Adrichem from Togari in Tasmania. Dale Serong from Lely Center Gippsland was the facilitator.
Asher said he “looked over the fence” at what his neighbour was doing and was impressed enough to contact Lely and compare the cost of upgrading his herringbone system to installing robot units.
Lifestyle and labour were big factors in his and his partner’s decision-making.
“Our young children were a key driver for us to change to robot units,” Asher said.
“The cost replaced a workers wage.”
He said they installed the RUs next to the swingover herringbone platform.
This enabled them to train their cows after milking on the herringbone platform to access grain through the RU system, in readiness for change.
“This meant they knew where the grain was from day one,” Asher said.
“Pre-training helped a lot for when we switched over.”
There were some issues in the first few weeks.
“Getting the draft gates right for grazing would have been good from the start, but the infrastructure was still arriving,” Asher said.
Lisa and Shawn Vening are the fourth and fifth generation working in the dairy industry.
Lisa and her husband Paul wanted to invest in a new dairy that incorporated the ambitions of their three sons.
“The boys wanted to work on the farm and were interested in the dairy industry,” Lisa said.
“We didn’t want the boys busting their guts, and we wanted them to spend time with their young families.”
The entire family worked together to build the infrastructure — a new shed, cattle yards and drafting set-up, laneways, reconfiguring paddocks, a feed pad and effluent dam.
Their commitment saw them working 20-hour days, building the infrastructure, continuing to farm, and milking in the old dairy.
“Don’t do everything yourself,” Shawn said.
“We were working all day then stopping at 6pm to milk cows.”
He also recommended simplifying the amount of herd management data available.
“I can spend hours going through information to decide who to join to who,” Shawn said.
In contrast, Lisa enjoys sifting through the data.
“I’ve got six generations of pedigrees in some cow families,” Lisa said.
Shawn said the robot milking system had changed for the better how the entire family farmed.
“We enjoy doing the other farm work, but we’re not stuck milking twice a day,” Shawn said.
John van Adrichem was the first Tasmanian dairy farmer to install Lely RUs, and he took himself to technician school to learn how to service the units.
His family farm transitioned from a herringbone to a rotary platform, before John inquired about the RUs.
“After four days, seeing the cows walking to the dairy on their own, I knew I’d done the right thing,” John said.
He recommended being open to changing your farming systems.
“I started with ABC grazing, but it didn’t work,” John said.
“It needed perseverance. You need a bit of lolly. We started feeding a biscuit of hay. You have to be open to change.
“In particular, training the heifers to three grazings per day was very important. They don’t know what to do.”