All-in-one dairy shed a giant achievement font size decrease font size increase font size Print Email Aad and Wilma van Leeuwen's 1500 -cow free-stall barn. Aad and Wilma van Leeuwens 1500 -cow free-stall barn. AS YOU drive up the back road off SH1 towards Van Leeuwen Group’s latest dairy development in South Canterbury, New Zealand, the scale of it isn’t immediately obvious. The long, gently-pitched roof of the 1500-cow free-stall barn blends into the skyline and the 7m tall effluent tank on the flats below looks fairly standard. It’s only when you notice the apparently miniature – and now redundant – woolshed next to it that the size of the development hits home. “We think it’s the biggest all-in-one shed in the southern hemisphere, possibly the world,” says Aad van Leeuwen as we walk up one of the barn’s two feeding lanes towards the central control room and 24 robotic milkers. The control room is raised over the main cow floor, providing an overview of the milkers and feeding lanes and stalls beyond. Each feed lane is 193m long with rubber-matted walkways for the cows on either side and latex-lined free-stalls. “The rubber mats in the walkways are the latest development, the ultimate in cow care.” They also mean there’s no need to transition the cows onto concrete – they can go in full-time straight off grass, and they will mean there’s no need to regroove concrete after several years to prevent slips. Experience with his other sheds is that the cows enjoy the indoor facilities. “If you walk through the sheds you find the cows are content and there are virtually no lameness issues, which is often the first thing people raise when you say you’re going to house cows. Because we’re using robotic milking there’s no forcing of cows into the shed: it’s their own decision to be milked. You might have to get one or two lazy ones in but that’s it. They’re also in good [body] condition.” While he’s used Lely’s Astronaut milkers in his other two free-stall barns – both 500-cow facilities built in 2009 – for the new shed he’s trying DeLaval’s VMS. “We lined up both and DeLaval’s quote was quite sharp and there are a few things I liked the look of on the DeLaval. This is an ideal opportunity to line up the two systems over the next five years or so and see how they work next to each other, to see which are the most reliable and economical.” A less complicated milking arm with fewer electronics on it, a milking bail that adjusts to the size of the cow and a “very good” pre-milking udder preparation with water and air were among the things that appealed with the VMS. As with the Lely systems, every cow’s production, every milking, will be recorded so staff can monitor performance from the control room. The aim is for an average 24-25 litres/cow/day at 8.5% milksolids. “We’ve got a very average herd going in, put together out of our other herds plus some surplus heifers.” The herd will be mated with Holstein Friesians and calved year-round. In due course he expects to get production up to 800-850kgMS/cow, with cows going out of the shed at drying off and coming back in after calving. Feeds will include grass and lucerne, fresh or ensiled, and maize silage, plus a few extras such as Canola meal, mixed in a 46m3, 25 tonne capacity three-axle mixer wagon and fed out once a day along the lanes, plus a pellet ration offered in the robotic milkers. Total ration will typically provide 250-260MJ ME/cow, at 17-17.5% protein. “With the right balance of feed even ordinary cows will give two to two-and-a-half times the production off conventional grass systems.” Nearly all the feed will be home-grown, cut and carried off the surrounding 600ha. It was the size of the block that persuaded Aad and wife Wilma to go for such a big barn. “We thought our next free-stall barn (his first two are 500-cow units) would be 1000 or 1200 cows but because of the land available we went for 1500. It’s been a bit of a challenge getting it through the consent process and built and I wouldn’t think you’d want to go much bigger, but we’re pleased with how it’s turning out.” The building’s been done by Advanced Cow Barns, Winton, who also designed the main structure, with various other local contractors. The set-up for the robots was van Leeuwen’s. In the shed alone nearly 2000m3 of concrete’s been poured, and including the surrounding infrastructure, the total’s 2500m3. Completion will be about a month behind schedule, largely due to a wet autumn and early winter, but once the cows take up residence next month it will soon be running at capacity. “We’ve found we can get most cows trained to using the robots in one to two weeks.” Effluent from the laneways will be continually cleared by automatic chain-pulled scrapers, draining down into the 7m deep, 23.5m radius tank. “We’ve got enough capacity for half a year.” The aim is to use the effluent as base fertiliser for the feed crops surrounding the shed, with a 20,000L slurry tanker applying it by dribble-bar or injector. “With injection we’re burying it in the soil so there’s no loss of nutrient to the air or smell to annoy the neighbours. It’s very effective. We’ve been doing it for three years.” The dribble-bar is used on existing grassland and lucerne. The shed will be manned 24/7, with a ratio of 200-250 cows/man during daytime, including feeding out. Overall running cost of the farm will be about $4.25/kgMS. Capital cost of the barn and surrounding infrastructure is about $2500/cow, but the robots “double it”, says van Leeuwen. Nonetheless, he says it should be profitable at about a $5.75/kgMS payout, and the returns accelerate above that, far more than off a traditional outdoor grazed system because of the much higher per cow, and per man, milk production. “We’ve done the traditional system for a long time and we felt housing our cows was the next step,” he explains, reflecting on 31 years in the New Zealand dairy industry since emigrating from Holland in 1983. “It means we can look after our cows, and the environment we’re farming in, better. We’re more in control.”
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 11:29:36 +0000
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