Saving time focus of machinery show for farmers
Dairy farmers were looking at machinery for handling, fertiliser and silaging, and discussing the latest findings on how automatic milking can free up time.
A trail at Gelli Aur Agricultural College in Wales showed it takes just three and three quarter hours per day to feed, check and clean the milking station and cow accommodation for a 50-strong herd, with automatic milking.
Activity monitoring of cows, through pedometers, helps to pinpoint cows in oestrous. “If there is an increase in cow mobility, we’re much more likely to take notice of that animal and ascertain whether she’s bulling,” explained farm manager, John Owen. “Nine times out of 10 she is.”
Current average yield for the automatically-milked herd, which contains a high percentage of heifers, is 9,000, from 2.5 milkings per cow per day, on average.
On trial was Fullwood’s Merlin milking system, linked to Crystal herd management software to monitor individual cow performance via pedometers.
The findings have been reinforced by the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers’ (RABDF) assessment of the true cost of family labour on farms. They found that family input on a well-run, average-sized farm is worth a massive €63,361, or €406 per cow, or €5.70 per litre of milk.
RABDF sources warned that the value of labour had not been recorded in accounting on many dairy farms, and farmers themselves were subsidising the true cost of production.
