To introduce our Year 9/10 AgHort students to the latest technology available in rotary dairies we undertook a field trip to Paul and Marsha Smith’s robotic dairy and Brett Nutting / Jodi Probert’s greenfield site dairy hub. After describing his career path, Paul outlined the decision making process behind the installation of Australia’s first GEA Dairy ProQ Robotic Rotary and the first in the world to operate in a pasture based system. Usually installed alongside a barn or feedlot, the Smiths did not want to change their production system but wanted to find a labour saving method, that gave them more freedom and would continue to be a sound investment for the next 25 years. Years of research lead to the installation of the hybrid voluntary system with robotic arms allowing for cleaning, milking and testing every teat in an automated process. The system enables reattachment and udder access at the same time with staff just supervising the milking with lights and touchscreens alerting them to cows that can be redrafted or checked. Designed to make milking their 730 cows even easier, students heard Paul’s plans for the timed automation of the milk collection valve at the vat and observed the circular yard and innovative flood wash system. At Bayriver Pastoral, Brett and Jodi described their journey from farming in Tasmania, through to sharefarming and purchasing a property at Curdievale. After introducing students to their latest staff member Jess, who is currently undertaking a Cert 111 in Dairy, they outlined the decision to start a new site to replace their outdated rotary consisting of a new 60 unit rotary, feedpad and 60,000 litre automated washdown system to simplify milking their 688 cows. Jodi and Brett introduced students to the dairy computer system that recoded data from the cows’ collars giving them information on the rumination, fertility and health status of their cows and observed the pasture density information generated by satellites that helped Brett plan for feed allocation. Students gratefully accepted milk products from Lactalis for the trip home and hopefully ruminated on Jodi’s advice on the importance of having a history of savings in their bank when they applied for a loan or wanted to purchase something. Great advice, thanks for demonstrating where dairy technology is heading, Paul, Marsha, Brett and Jodi. Comments are closed.
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