Customer testimonials

5th generation dairy farmer, Ross Johnson, is using milking robots with a grazing system. Since installing the robots in February 2021 he has seen milk yield rise by 300 litres per cow and is expecting to reach 8000 litres per annum in 2023.

Jim Booth is a second-generation dairy farmer who embraced technology by becoming an early adopter of DeLaval milking robots. Eleven years on and he has updated his robots, becoming one of the first farmers to make the shift from old to new.  He replaced two DeLaval VMS Classic robots with two new V310 models and immediately saw increases in yield, reductions in somatic cell count (SCC) and reduced milking times.

Paul and Elaine Smith farm in Crosten near Lancashire. After 32 years of milking the herd across two farms, the family decided the way they farm needed to change. The family made the decision that robots would be the way forward for the family.

Having moved to a robotic milking system a Somerset dairy farm is seeing increased fertility and higher milk yields. The average milk yield has increased from 28.8 to 30.9 kilos per day. However, there are wider benefits including reduced mastitis and ketosis. The new system is also helping with heat detection, which has improved from 44 to 78 percent since it was installed in October 2019

Six new DeLaval robots were installed for Richard Threlfell and his family at Plumpton Head Farm, near Penrith, in November 2020. The impact on the farm, and the family, has been a revelation. “The cows are being milked up to five times a day. The yield is already up 34 percent and we are likely to see some of the high yielding cows delivering more than 10,000 litres this year,” says Richard.

Grant Smith farms in partnership with his parents Muir and Lorna Smith at Keltonhill Farm near Castle Douglas. Milking 270 cows at the moment with the intention to increase 320 in the next 2 years. Last year the family decided to invest in 4 DeLaval milking robots and have seen great results since.

Milking over 600 cows just outside Ardstraw, Jason Mitchell is the fourth generation of his family to milk cows in Co. Tyrone. Operating an all-year-round calving and housing system, Jason’s operation is quite unique. The farm is home to eight DeLaval milking robots (six VMS classics and two VMS V300s) and a 50-unit rotary parlour.

Labour was the main issue facing Tom O’Donnell and his team at Togher Farm. They had been thinking about changing their milking system for 5/6 years and then in October 2018 they decided to invest in robotic milking and installed 6 VMS V300s.

Trevor Wilson from Fermanagh recently decided to switch from sheep and sucklers to dairy farming. The Wilsons have 32,000 broiler breeder laying hens that need eggs to be lifted every morning.As the morning time was already filled with lifting eggs, Trevor decided robotic milking would be his best option when switching to dairy.

William Warnock installed a DeLaval P2100 rapid exit parlour with Evanza clusters, automatic weighing scales and a body conditioning camera in December 2020. This has halved the time it takes to milk the herd, improved cow health, and offered the farm the opportunity to focus on making more milk from forage.

Five years ago, a Devon family farm made a bold move to switch from rearing cattle and sheep to starting a dairy herd. Andrew Hammett and his wife Liz took over running Andrew’s parent’s farm in 2003. Broadmoor farm extends to 180-acres of the rolling Devon land, east of Barnstaple.

Labour was the main issue facing Robert and his family at Butteridge Farm. Last November they decided to invest in a new Milking Parlour – DeLaval Herringbone HB50 20x20.

Mary & Ger are a mother and son duo from Co.Waterford. The family have been using DeLaval equipment for years – the parlour before this was DeLaval and it was installed in 1975.

Rory Christie farms in partnership with his brother Gregor near Port William on the south west coast of Scotland. He grew the farm’s herd from 600 to 1500 cows and needed more milking provision to decrease the number of hours it took to milk. In 2019 Rory invested in a second parlour to move to two milkings a day.

Emyr Owen from Llanrwst in Wales recently decided to switch from beef & sheep to dairy. He was working outside the farm also as a manger for a young stock herd and as his parents were getting older he had been thinking about investing in dairy to improve farm income.

The installation of a 60-point DeLaval E300 rotary parlour alongside a DeLaval teat spray robot at Finefarm Ltd has more than halved milking times, improved cow health and enabled the Passmore family to manage the whole farming system more efficiently.