Larissa and Peter Joyce retrofitted their herringbone dairy into a two-bay robot dairy.
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Peter said it was surprisingly easy to do and considerably cheaper than putting a new milking shed.
Larissa and Peter are now milking less cows for higher production, feeding less grain, and are looking forward to remaining in the dairy industry.
“In spring, the cows peak at 30.5 litres, where before the robot units were installed, they’d peak at 27 litres,” Peter said.
“That’s a significant improvement, and it’s probably because the cows are more relaxed when they come in to be milked.”
Peter and Larissa milk 120 Holstein-Friesian cows off 89 hectares of steep to undulating dryland country at Strzelecki, in Gippsland, Victoria.
The country is split into 40 paddocks for grazing.
Peter grew up on the family farm established by his great-grandparents, left to complete a small engine mechanic apprenticeship, then returned to work on the farm when he was 22 years old.
Peter started off as a farm worker for his parents, Don and Kathleen Joyce, then progressed to sharefarming with them.
He started building equity in the herd, and by the time Peter purchased the 89ha dairy farm from Don and Kath, he owned 60 milking cows.
When Peter and Larissa bought the farm in 2001, they purchased the other half of the milking herd.
At the time, they were still milking out of a 12-swing-over herringbone dairy built by Don in 1986-87.
It replaced a walk-through milking shed that Kath’s family milked their herd in.
After buying the farm in 2001, Peter and Larissa grew the herd to 150 milkers.
“I started thinking about robot milking units in 2018, and it took me a few years before I pulled the trigger and committed to changing to them,” Peter said.
“I wasn’t quite sure I wanted to continue milking cows, so I held off making a decision for a little bit.
“Once I decided I was going to continue milking, I contacted Lely about retrofitting robot units into the herringbone dairy.”
Technicians from Lely Center Gippsland measured and planned the layout and Peter and Larisa organised for their 40 autumn calved cows to be transported to Rob and Marita Pandolfo’s farm at Lardner for milking during the rebuild.
“Retrofitting in the same shed saved us a significant amount on building a new shed,” Peter said.
The pit was covered with grate, that was welded down.
Some concrete was laid to level out the entry to the dairy shed from the yard.
Very little was done to change the layout of the yard as the cows came from the laneway onto the dairy platform.
“We gutted the dairy and we retrofitted a robot milking unit either side of the pit,” Peter said.
It took about 10 weeks to complete all the work.
They put the A5 robot units in where the cows entered the old herringbone.
“I think some cows have got their favourite side for entering the dairy,” Peter said.
“So those cows who went in the left side, they still enter the left side and go through that unit.
“The cows that entered the dairy on the right side, still go through that side.
“The transition was pretty smooth.”
Only a few spring calving cows dropped their calves before the new dairy was set up.
“We timed it to work out really well,” Peter said.
“We brought back the 40 autumn calvers and switched on the robot units and trained those cows to go through them.
“Then as the spring calvers started calving, we just ran them through the dairy as normal and taught them to go through the robot units.
“Heifers outperformed cows early on. The heifers that calved three weeks out from the opening of the robot units, they absolutely dominated early on.
“We opened the gate at night one, after the first milking, and the heifers absolutely charged back to the dairy — they beat me back there — and started milking themselves. So that felt pretty good.
“Now the herd come and go as they please. The cows come to the dairy, get milked, and then they go to a fresh paddock after every milking.
“They do really well on a pasture-based system.”
The same grain silos remain just outside the dairy yard. An auger feeder was constructed to move the grain from the silo to a hopper that goes through the roof of the dairy, to feed bins over the robot units.
“We didn’t have to add or get rid of a silo, or shift them,” Peter said.
“Now the cows are getting exactly the amount of grain they need, rather than eight kilograms each a day.
“Now, they’re fed to production. So the cows that are milking 40 litres, they will get 8kg of grain. The cows that are producing 20 litres are getting 4kg of grain.
“That’s considerably reduced the amount of grain we feed out, so that’s been a cost saving.”
A new innovation for Peter and Larissa as part of installing the robot units, was putting collars on their cows, which has helped them reduce the amount of grain they feed each cow.
The collars also provide a lot of rumination, health and reproductive information for Peter to make decisions about.
“I don’t have to visually identify the cows that are on heat or a high cell count,” he said.
“When they come in for milking, they’re automatically drafted for me to check them.”
Peter has become comfortable using the technology.
“When it comes to computers, I didn’t know a lot, so I wouldn’t say I’m a whiz, but I know my way around it a lot better now,” he said.
“The collars provide a lot of information.
“There’s more information available than you actually probably need. But if you want it, it’s there.
“I use it daily to check udder and cow health.
“When we’re joining, the collars play a big role in heat detection, and it’s a lot more accurate than me identifying cows.”
The milking herd remains split-calving, with about 40 per cent autumn and 60 per cent spring calvers.
The herd is on a prostaglandin program followed by two rounds of artificial insemination, followed by mop-up bulls.
“We try to get as many cows as possible in calf through the PG and AI program,” Peter said.
“That’s why we do two rounds of AI.”
With the drop-off of the export heifer market, he has reduced his reliance on sexed semen to 50 per cent.
All heifer calves are reared, and the surplus sold in-calf.
With the new system, Peter has turned off his alarm and wakes each day re-energised for dairy farming.
“I get to enjoy farming now,” he said.
“I wasn’t a big fan of milking. It was painful on my legs. No longer milking frees up a lot more time.
“I can be a lot more efficient in all the other areas of dairy farming.”
He spends time each day washing down the robot units and the yard.
Peter also spends more time raising his calves, and watching his children play sport. He has also rejoined the local football club as a junior coach.
“The kids are all involved in sport,” he said.
“Now I get down to the dairy and most of the cows have milked, and I just have to wash up, feed a few calves, set the paddocks up for the day, and then I can take off and get the kids to sport.
“Before the robot units were installed, I’d be up at four o’clock in the morning to try and get everything done before taking the kids to junior sport, that starts at 8.30am.”
Peter and Larissa have also retained the same workforce, again because their input frees up more family time for the couple.
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