Friday, 15 December 2023 09:55

Robots help sustainability drive

Written by  Staff Reporters
Ian and Carmen Comins, Kihikihi Ian and Carmen Comins, Kihikihi

Ian & Carmen Comins, Kihikihi, set up their farming operation in 2018, starting with 80 cows and working on increasing to 110, saw many attractive benefits to putting in robots, starting with just one robot they put another in 2020.

Now looking to the future with their business and a focus on sustainability as they set their goal to reduce the amount of antibiotics used with a goal of decreasing overall bulk SCC.

They researched a company called AHV (Animal Health Vision) – which is an innovative animal health company. Working in partnership with AHV they are seeing huge benefits by reducing their penicillin use.

They liked the idea of strengthening an animal’s immune system rather than treating with penicillin right away.

They are developing a more natural approach to their herd’s health and focussing on why a cow is run down and therefore getting mastitis.

They believe it is better for the health of the cow, and the milk they supply, to have this approach.

During the last few years, the Comins have learnt to manually separate the cows with higher SCC, and with the right course of action, have seen positive changes within a couple of days. This has led them to better understand what can cause their SCC to change.

They can do this with help from the Lely management platform system to identify those cows that show the first indication of infection and have been monitoring the progress of the cows treated with the AHV products.

Comins have used the use of technology to help provide valuable information such as:

  • Report # 10 - Health report

This report combines available sensors on the farm to identify the cows that need attention on first response. These health attentions give the Comins insight into the animal number, group, lactation, days production, sick chance, and sensor reason like – milk temp / SCC indication / activity, value and severity.

  • Another example is Report # 23 Milking Udder Health Analyse

The Udder health report provides information of attention cows with suspected udder health problems. This list combines milk sensor information, (milk yield, conductivity, colour and optional cell count). These are just two of the reports that assist the Comins in identifying the animals that need their care and attention.

More like this

Cow and farmer friendly

Cows benefit from robotic milking. They are more relaxed, healthier, and reward farmers with more milk.

Robot that harvests grass set for debut

Robotic milking specialist Lely has announced that Exos, a fully autonomous vehicle for harvesting and feeding fresh grass, will be commercially available to Dutch dairy farms from the middle of 2024.

Featured

Better animal genetic gain system

A governance group has been formed, following extensive sector consultation, to implement the recommendations from the Industry Working Group's (IWG) final report and is said to be forming a 'road map' for improving New Zealand's animal genetic gain system.

SIDE 2025's new schedule, venue

Annual farmer gathering, the South Island Dairy Event (SIDE), is set to make history as it heads to Timaru for the first time.

Taranaki piggery goes solar

Installing 400 solar panels at their Taranaki piggery and cropping operation will have significant environmental, financial and animal welfare benefits for the Stanley family.

National

OSPRI's costly software upgrade

Animal disease management agency OSPRI has announced sweeping governance changes as it seeks to recover from the expensive failure of…

Machinery & Products

BA Pumps expand

Cambridge based BA Pumps & Sprayers, specialists in New Zealand-made spraying equipment, has acquired Tokoroa Engineering’s product range, including the…

Entries open for innovation award

Fieldays and its renowned Innovation Awards are celebrating their 57th year, marking a longstanding tradition in the agricultural calendar, with…

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Chinese strategy

OPINION: Fonterra may have sold its dairy farms in China but the appetite for collaboration with the country remains strong.

Not fair

OPINION: The Listener's latest piece on winter grazing among Southland dairy farmers leaves much to be desired.

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter