Lely Robotic Indoor system

The 2 original ones were side by side and the 3rd one was put in at the far end of the shed. Milk wouldn't flow properly back to the tank. Other problems too
 
My only real experience with robots are lely a5s my uncle has. You'll get the odd power outage that will put the whole show back a few hours, a wild heifer that won't settle(I think training heifers before they calve by putting them through the robot as a feeding station would help), or a feed setting or bin sensor that said meal was being fed when it wasn't.
But 99.9% of the time, they work perfectly. You won't be able to walk away from the farm and expect everything to be rosey for a week at a time, but if you'd want to get finished for 3 o'clock on a Friday or Saturday to go watch the rugby and have a few beers, you'll get away with coming back the next day at 10 or 12.
 
You need the correct mentality with robots.
You have to be able to switch yourself off and say ittl be fine till morning.
One lad had his heart broken by them, but was getting up for every alarm. 4 times+ a night. Most had sorted themselves by the time he got there. But was always "what iff"ing about each alarm.
I know another who changes settings at bed time so he only gets alerted to serious issues.
Hadn't been called in two weeks when I spoke to him.
He admitted the bots had to work hard to catch up. But sure that's what they are designed to do!
 
You need the correct mentality with robots.
You have to be able to switch yourself off and say ittl be fine till morning.
One lad had his heart broken by them, but was getting up for every alarm. 4 times+ a night. Most had sorted themselves by the time he got there. But was always "what iff"ing about each alarm.
I know another who changes settings at bed time so he only gets alerted to serious issues.
Hadn't been called in two weeks when I spoke to him.
He admitted the bots had to work hard to catch up. But sure that's what they are designed to do!

Stop alarms only here between 11pm and 6am so only get alerts if a robot stops. Got less than 10 this year, sorted a couple of them from the phone, a few more were left till morning. Expect less night alarms next year as the herd matures.
 
Stop alarms only here between 11pm and 6am so only get alerts if a robot stops. Got less than 10 this year, sorted a couple of them from the phone, a few more were left till morning. Expect less night alarms next year as the herd matures.
What model of robot have you got? How long are they in?
 
It’s ok turning off alarms but if your up to capacity with cows your soon losing a lot of milk,you can’t catch up like you can with a parlour.
 
Stop alarms only here between 11pm and 6am so only get alerts if a robot stops. Got less than 10 this year, sorted a couple of them from the phone, a few more were left till morning. Expect less night alarms next year as the herd matures.
When you say alarms do you mean fetching cows that are over their time between milkings?
 
It’s ok turning off alarms but if your up to capacity with cows your soon losing a lot of milk,you can’t catch up like you can with a parlour.
Sorry, I explained that poorly. "Stop alarms" are alerts that notify if a robot stops. These are the only alarms that are permitted between 11pm and 6am. We are at full capacity between April and September so can't afford to have a robot offline for long without creating a backlog.
 
10 times in a year.... IF yields are higher on a robot (so they tell us), not to mention the health benefits from the constant monitoring (again, so I'm told!) that is probably made up for?
Mate of mine has 3 bots in now 18 months
Herd udder health has increased
Its amazing how some cows will finish 1 or 2 quarters then take another say 2 minutes on other 2
In a parlour the unit would be on till the end🤷‍♂️
 
No need to fetch cows when they are at grass which is the majority of the year. Depends on the system but we get "Notification alarms" which alert you if something unusual is happening and "Stop Alarms" which let you a robot has gone offline.
How many paddocks do you use for grazing?
 
As in they start in A go through bot to B then bot to C then back to A(even if that's a new paddock /fresh strip)
I know nothing hence questions
That's it yeah, 10am-5pm in A, 5pm-1am in B and 1-10am in C. They're only allowed into bot if they have milking permission (usually set at every 8 hours). Otherwise they're diverted on to new paddock without milking.
 
That's it yeah, 10am-5pm in A, 5pm-1am in B and 1-10am in C. They're only allowed into bot if they have milking permission (usually set at every 8 hours). Otherwise they're diverted on to new paddock without milking.
Where do you have the gates?
Can/do the cows walk from A back into bots,but then have to walk back to A if it's not their time
 
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