Last week I visited a farm where I helped start the robots almost 4 years ago. I have only been back a couple of times since the startup so we had a lot to catch up on. After comparing notes on neighbors, weather, feed tables, milking permission, cow flow, and other odds and ends, the farmer got a big smile and said, “I have to show you my new favorite robot.”
His new favorite robot is a bedding robot. I had seen bedding robots in other barns, but I didn’t get the grand tour I got here. The robot is like a miniature TMR mixer suspended from
a steel rail that runs over the free stalls. This one is programmed to bed the whole barn twice a day. It can be programmed to put more bedding in zones where bedding disappears more quickly. Bedding is loaded into a stationary mixer which automatically fills the robot as needed. This 4-unit barn had been bedded by hand, with straw and shavings from a feed cart, to avoid disrupting cow traffic. The labor savings were obvious, but there was much more to it.
Moving cows around the pen to distribute bedding 1 to 3 times a week is a necessary evil in
most barns. You can minimize the disruption but you can’t eliminate it. Running the bedding robot on a rail above the cows means there is absolutely no interference with cow traffic. I expected that. Even the cows that had bedding sprinkled on top of them while they were resting completely ignored the activity. The bedding slid off and stayed in the stall.
I had not thought about more consistent bedding. Bedding twice a day means there is always the right amount of bedding in the stall. Stalls are not over-filled on bedding day resulting in wasted bedding. Stalls are not underfilled the day before bedding day sacrificing cow comfort.
On another farm, I watched a robotic TMR mixer in action. The mixer moves around the barn all day – loading feed, mixing feed, pushing feed, and measuring feed. Bulky ingredients like
hay and haylage are loaded by an automatic scoop. Corn silage is loaded from a self-unloading box with a conveyor for faster loading. Concentrates are loaded from bins with augers. The farmer liked the consistency and reliability of the system. He is able to minimize refusals because the robot can learn to be there, ready to provide more feed, as soon as the bunk gets low. Fresher feed and less refused feed mean that bunks only need to be cleaned about cleaned about once a week. A consistent supply of feed in the bunk keeps cows moving to the robots throughout the day.
Bedding robots and TMR robots improve the workflow in robotic barns with greater consistency, less labor, and less interference. Explore the Consult Corner at www.cow-corner.co, or contact me to discuss other ways to improve workflow and cow flow in your barn.
Photos courtesy of: https://jamesway.valmetal.com and https://www.lelylife.com
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