Thunder Bay, Ontario, Great White North | Jim, I built a new structure over the existing pits, the alleys are now a mixture of solid floor and slats so I installed a cable scraper to run over them. The area in front of the robots is fully slatted. The robots are located at the end of the barn, the centre would make cow handling a lot more complicated. The stalls have dual chamber waterbeds and I bed them with straw that has been processed through a haybuster with a fine screen, works as well as sawdust but more importantly I don't have to worry about trying to find sawdust. Cell count is around 250, I'd rather it was lower but I have a few cows with 'issues' that is not the fault of the robots. Had some problems with my dry cow housing. I rarely treat a cow, but also rarely treated in the parlor. By rarely I mean I might treat a cow once every two months. We are on a 3 month scheduled maintenance but I'm not on a plan, I'd have to figure it out but I'd guess the costs so far for maintenance would be a little less than what you were quoted. But that of course may change as the robots age and require more parts tho be replaced. Bernie |
Robotic dairy/ vms questions
