Open day at Low Whinholme Farm
Thursday 27th April, 10am - 2pm
Low Whinholme Farm is throwing open its gates and welcoming visitors to see how it has been successfully grazing cows that are milked by robots. Most farms milking with robots choose to keep cows in all year round. However, the Johnson family has adapted a grazing system to work with its herd and three DeLaval robots.
The herd milk yield has risen by 300 litres per cow per year and the farm is expecting to reach 8000 litres in 2023. Ross Johnson, who manages the farm in partnership with his father and uncle, says:
“We invested in three VMS 310 robots and have 155 milkers on them currently. We wanted to keep the herd out as much as possible so have worked with DeLaval to design a system of gates that see the herd use a series of tracks to access fields on rotation.”
The robots are split, with one milking the high yielding cows in a separate shed and two further robots dedicated to lower yielding cows.
“We are year-round calving so there is a constant flow of high yielding cows from one shed to the other. We want all the cows to feel the sun on their backs, get fresh air and a break from the concrete. As their yield reduces, we move them to the larger shed where they have full access to graze throughout the day. Keeping existing buildings has saved a significant amount of money and the cows never needed to be rehoused,” he says.
Cow health has improved with SCC’s dropping from 150 to 120 and mastitis cases to just one every 10 weeks. The family praise the teat preparation and robot milking for this, citing the robot’s ability to learn and log the position of each cow’s teats. The robots have also helped to improve foot health through the installation of a footbath which is largely chemical free and has reduced cases of dermatitis.
“We have also noticed a change in cow behaviour. The herd is calmer and more biddable. We carry out our own AI and the cows are much easier to move into the crush and work with. Mastitis Detection index (MDi) data from the robots has also helped us to monitor conductivity and blood count to catch issues sooner,” he adds.
The open day will take place on April 27th 10:00am-2:00pm at Low Whinholme Farm, Northallerton DL7 0AS. To attend please register online by clicking here