Technology is targeting the growing number of Australian dairy herds housed in barns.
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With bold predictions from some quarters that half Australia's milk will come from cows living in sheds by 2030, specialised technology is now finding its way into Australia.
With higher costs in shedded operations, much of the technology aims to automate labour-intensive tasks.
The latest to be released is a robotic mobile vacuum pump for cleaning up manure in slatted and hard floor sheds.
It looks a lot like the robotic vacuum cleaners increasingly finding their way into Australian homes, but more heavy duty and on a larger scale.
The Lely Discovery Collector C2 replaces the need for farmers to hose or flood wash the sheds every day.
It operates at times of the farmer's choosing and follows a route selected by the farmer.
The unit was launched in Australia on July 1.
Proven technology overseas
The Lely Discovery Collector is a proven product in many countries.
Lely launched the Discovery 90 S and 90 SW in 2005 to clean floors in barns.
In 2016, it entered the market for automatic cleaning of closed floors with the Discovery Collector C1 - a revolutionary way of cleaning with manure collected by a vacuum pump.
The Discovery Collector C2, which is now available for Australian farmers, has an increased driving capacity and charges wirelessly.
Collecting manure instead of pushing
Rather than pushing the manure forward, the robot collects it and unloads above a dumping point, before recharging again for the next route.
The cleaner can use water to thin the manure at the front and to prevent new manure from sticking to the floor behind the unit.
This water is tanked independently and stored in two water bags in the manure tank.
As the manure tank becomes fuller, the volume of the water bags decreases so that more space becomes available for manure.
The machine is compact.
Cows can easily get around it and the Discovery Collector C2 can drive under (separation) fences and through cross alleys.
The robot has a 24-volt lithium battery and uses around 3 kiloWatts per day in electricity.
The Discovery Collector ensures that the hooves remain cleaner.
Dutch farmer finds hooves and udders cleaner
Dutch farmer Johan Harbers, from Barger-Copascuum, has been using a Discovery Collector since 2021.
He said he had noticed the cows hooves and udders were cleaner since the system was introduced.
Mr Harbers built a new dairy in 2014, milking 125 cows in a barn, using a Lely Astronaut automatic milking machine.
The farm uses a Lely Vector automatic feeding system.
The Discovery Collector replaced a fixed manure scrapping block, which was a block of iron pulled through the manure alley by a rope.
But this only cleaned the alley and not the crossings.
"So every hour the cows had to go through a 15-centimetre high manure bath, so their hooves got very dirty," he said.
"Now the floor remains nice and clean and so do the hooves.
"When the cow lie down, their teats are often close to the hooves, so I notice their udders remain cleaner too."
The cows became used to the robot quickly and were not bothered by it.
Mr Harbers said the Collector was compact.
It took about three hours to complete four fixed routes, repeating those eight times a day.
Visit www.lely.com/au/ for more information.
Carlene Dowie
Carlene Dowie is the editor of the Australian Dairyfarmer magazine and has more than 30 years' experience as a rural journalist.
Carlene Dowie is the editor of the Australian Dairyfarmer magazine and has more than 30 years' experience as a rural journalist.
