Technology buff keen to run farm remotely

It means everything is normal on the Pleasant Point farm: cows have been turning up throughout the night to be milked by six DeLaval robots.

And if a text does come in, Reid is able to log onto his home computer and see what the problem is, thanks to 12 powerful cameras installed around the farm. The self-confessed technology buff has installed cameras, sensor lights and water usage measurement devices on his farm in his quest to eventually run the farm remotely.

“When I get a text I bring up the robots on the screen. If the text is about teat cup grip then I bring up the robot and can see the teat cup hanging; from my computer I can control the robot and fix it.”

Reid and his wife Judith either own or are equity partners in six farms in the South Island; the other five are conventional farms running 300-800 cows.

The robotic farm, launched last November, milks 480 cows twice daily. The technology starts at the gate with each animal ear tagged; the tag sends a signal to a central computer that stores information on production flow. The computer’s memory then guides the animals through a series of gates to milk or graze. Reid expects each cow to produce 430kgMS/year.

The DeLaval voluntary milking system (VMS) comes with the DelPro herd management system. It collates a comprehensive record for each cow and allows Reid and his staff to follow each cow’s milking performance and milk quality.

The DelPro system also keeps track of each cow’s milk production and number of visits to the VMS. It automatically calculates the optimal time for the next visit, based on the time elapsed since the previous milking and the amount of milk expected. 

Cow traffic at the robots is controlled by a smart selection gate (SSG). Reid says its helps get more milkings per cow per day, more regular milking intervals and higher feed intake.

DelPro logs milk quality for each cow and sends alarms if threshold levels have been exceeded. It alerts the VMS so it automatically diverts abnormal milk and alerts Reid and his staff via mobile phone and computer.

Accurate feeding is another feature of DelPro: data from milk meters, together with fat and protein information from individual milk samples, can be gathered and analysed in DelPro and used to dispense precise feed amounts for each identified animal at the feed station. 

The robotic farm project has cost Reid about $2.5 million; a rotary milking machine would have cost less. But we will get that back, says Reid.

The farm is run by two full-time staff; he works part-time on the farm. A conventional farm of the same size would need 3.5 labour units.

Reid says with a rotary milking machine he would have been “bored” by now.

His next project on the farm is how to run the farm remotely.

“Eventually, I don’t want people here; most days between 7pm and 5am there’s no one here. The plan is to get exceptional reporting systems in place and if the farm is running the way it should I don’t want to know about it. But if something’s wrong, I want to know about it straight away.”

The DeLaval robots are doing the job but he’s keen to add other technology. 

 “The robot says it’s been idle for 60 minutes and we wonder, what’s the reason for the text? We soon start to learn that if we get that text at 8pm, when you know the shed should be full, you get on the computer and cameras and know something is wrong.

“The DeLaval system has exceptional reporting but there are a lot of things that are not part of the robotic system and we need to add to that.”

Reid has been a fan of automatic milking since his stint on the Dexcel (now DairyNZ) board.

“Our trials at Newstead proved we could make cows voluntarily move around farms. What De Laval has designed now is far more stringent than what we had in 2008.”

Reid is confident of making his robotic farm profitable within three years. 

There are teething problems but he is keen to learn and make adjustments along the way. “Not one day do we say we should not have done this.”