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First published in British Dairying - the following article shows how we work with an organic Robot Farm - Masons at Merrivale. 

Using milking robots on an organic farm can be tricky, particularly during the grazing season. But one farming family is upping the ante with the help of their nutritionist, who has considerable robot know-how.

The Mason Family Farm at Merrivale in Herefordshire, milking 155 cows through three Lely A4 Robots. The 175-cow herd of pedigree Holsteins averages 10,500 litres (305-day average) of organic milk, sold on contract to Omsco, with the herd having antibiotic-free status. The milk is also sold bottled and as milkshakes through a vend-ing machine installed on the farm two years ago, with another commis-sioned for the end of February 2023.

When Dylan Pinker, Ruminant Nutritionist at Advanced Nutrition, started working with siblings Ben and Lucy Mason, to provide support from the firm’s robotic division - Advanced Robot - the farm had been doing well. However, they wanted to push things further and maximise the potential of their robots.  “A neighbouring farmer had recommended Dylan and we soon understood that the company’s robot experience would be invaluable to us,” says Ben. 

“The technical ability and whole farm approach seemed to fit with our philosophy, and we started working with Dylan in 2020.” Dylan explains: “The challenge with robots for a grazing herd is to keep up the visits to maintain milk yields - the robots are always there for the housed herd, but with a grazed herd you need to get the balance right. 

Driven by feed 
“That is to ensure the cow is hungry enough to keep visiting the robot, where she is rewarded with a compound feed. She will then move to another paddock after a  successful milking.” The cows are grazed on an ABC system from March through to October, and to maximise output, Dylan and the team re-evaluated the grazing strategy, using the AgriNet software program to aid with planning. Grass management was transformed, enabling the Masons to increase stocking density on the grazing platform, and allowing increased acreage to be used for silage ground. The family introduced a designated grazing platform, with grass grazed to residuals of 1,600kg dry matter (DM)/ha. “The ABC system allows us to manage the grass and cows more easily, creating a simple system with low labour costs,”  says Ben. It’s been especially hard for organic herds over the past couple of years to build forage stocks, explains Dylan. “We’ve had spells of wet and dry weather, which has made grazing extremely challenging at times. It’s also meant creating a wedge of forage to last the autumn and winter months  which has been difficult.

 Tight margins
“Organic feed is expensive,” he adds. “Pair this with a low milk price in 2022 and margins have been very tight. So, managing the grazing system efficiently and getting more milk from forage has been paramount.”

The Masons are now seeing the results, and currently achieve 4,300 litres/cow from forage. This has been in part due to the new grazing strategy, but also better management of the robot settings. These are bespoke to this grazing herd, with the milk access and feed table settings adjusted throughout the season.  The Masons target four cuts of silage/year, with the aim of creating high quality forage, focusing on protein. Currently, they are using a mix of Italian ryegrasses and red and white clover for the silage ground, and a mix of herbal leys and white clovers for grazing. They also grow turnips during late summer. A pea and barley wholecrop mix, undersown with red and white clover, allows the cows to graze post- harvest and increases potential for milk from forage.  The wholecrop provides a great fibre source to complement the high protein grass and fodder beet, which is grown as an energy source for the winter.

“We’ve achieved the target of a 2.8 robot visit average while grazing with the ABC system,” says Ben. “Dylan has helped us improve our grazing management, focusing on hitting the residuals on the grazed grass. We have increased efficiency by decreasing the grazing platform and allowing more grass to be cut for silage. We also increased the stocking density to increase milk per hectare.

“It’s been really important to maintain a high health status for our herd while we were making these changes, and improving robot visits and building forage stocks aren’t the only areas that Dylan and the team have been able to improve.”

The Masons were having a some issues with metabolic dis-eases in fresh cows due to the  transition period. Dylan introduced a new dry cow diet, using chopped straw and hay, with a bespoke dry cow mineral to provide a high fibre, low  energy diet.  This helped ensure the cows weren’t over conditioned. Consequently, the farm is now seeing fewer milk fevers and retained cleansings. 

Fresh cow performance
Fresh cow performance has also substantially increased, which is having a knock-on effect for the subsequent lactation. For the milking cows, Dylan also adjusted the diet to maximise protein efficiency.  Typically, grass is high in rapidly degradable protein. Including the feed additive Novatan allows this protein to be used more efficiently by the cow, and increases milk production, rather than being lost to the environment as wasted nitrogen. A partial mixed ration (PMR) buffer is offered at the robot sheds including forages if grass is short, with compound fed year-round in the robots. The cows also get a meal feed during the winter, depending on  protein levels.  “We’ve been happy to have Dylan and Advanced Robot join our team,” says Ben. “We are really starting to see the benefits of their experience and we also like their whole farm approach that is already pushing for more improvements this year.”

Future plans
Further planned improvements at Merrivale Farm include looking to introduce alternative crops to decrease the need for  bought-in feeds.  The family are also wanting to scrutinise organic raw material costs, improve heifer performance, and  further support the Merrivale Milk brand in Herefordshire.