ROBOTIC FARM FEATURE – NANGKITA DAIRIES

Jake Connor and his family are the fourth generation to operate Nangkita Dairies, near Mount Compass in South Australia. The operation includes 2 sites – one with 8 Lely robots and 450 cows, and the other with 6 Lely robots milking 350 cows. Non-milking animals are raised on a third site. Both sites are completely grass based, using an ABC grazing system. All of the forage comes from the pasture for 6 months of the year. Silage is fed during the 4 months when grass stops growing because it is too dry. The cows get a combination of pasture and silage during the transition months before and after the peak grazing season. Jake emphasizes that the robot is a management tool, which helps him to use his cows to effectively and efficiently harvest the grass. Confinement farms can learn a lot about robotic dairy management from this grass-based farm.

Jake visited an open house at a robotic grass-based dairy in 2019 and he was hooked.

While the rest of the guests were watching the robots, Jake was watching the cows move from the pasture to the robots – each according to their own schedule. He says, “There's not many families more passionate about milking cows than what we are, but we just wouldn't dairy farm without robots anymore.” With the ABC system, cows get access to fresh feed 3 times daily. He estimates that his cows eat 15% more forage than they did when they were milked in the parlor. Parlor cows were milked twice daily. They all came to the parlor hungry after all the grass was harvested from the paddock. They all ate grain in the parlor. They all went back to the pasture hungry and filled up with a large meal of fresh grass until they were full. With the robotic system, the cows are never hungry and they are never full. When they are ready for another meal, they return to the robot to get access to a new paddock. A consistent supply of high-quality forage keeps the cows moving. Well managed feed bunks in robotic confinement dairies can achieve the same thing.

9 months after starting the first robotic dairy, Jake began the process of replacing the rotary on the other site. The rotary was not worn out, but Jake was convinced that robots were the best way to use his cows to manage his pastures. He estimates his labor savings at 40%. Milking labor is only part of the story. Cows travel up to a mile between the robots and the furthest paddocks. When cows were milked in the parlor, bringing cows from the pasture to the parlor was a huge time commitment. That chore is eliminated because cows move on their own.

Connor is not interested in production per robot. He measures robot capacity in terms of

cows per robot – enough robots, to handle enough cows, to manage his pastures. In his case that is about 55 cows per robot. Years ago, when he built his rotary, nobody asked how much milk he would get from each set of cups. The rotary was sized to get the cows milked and get them back to pasture. Jake points out that, “As soon as someone puts in robots, all this focus goes into getting as much out of that set of cups as I possibly can, and often to the detriment of the farming system.” Confinement dairies that have added extra robot capacity would probably agree.

Jake says it is extremely important to have an open mind about robots and grazing. This too applies equally to robots with confinement. “You don't know what's right until you've had the system because it's so different than what you expect. And you've got to allow it to be different because the people that have got robots that say that it isn't that different are the ones that are not maximizing the system.”

Watch for more from Jake on upcoming episodes of the Worldwide Robotic Milking Podcast.