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SUMMER 2013 ISSUE
LIVESTOCK MATTERS
6
X LVETS NEWS
XLVets
robotic milking study tour to Denmark
The first morning we were taken to the
Knowledge Centre for Agriculture which is
a large centre dedicated to all things
agricultural. Scientists, journalists and political
lobbyists all work here for the good of
agriculture in Denmark. It is mostly paid for by
levies on farmers with some supplementary
income from specific work done on farms at
the farmer's request. It was great to see such
a collaborative ethos and think about how
fantastic this must be for the Danish farmers.
We first spent some time with Dan Borup
Jorgensen and Peter Dahlgaard of Dyrlaeger
& Ko; a group very similar to XLVets, that
operates throughout Denmark. Peter is a
Danish vet whose practice is a member of
Dyrlaeger & Ko. He spent the morning taking
us through how Danish farm vets work and
due to the constraints of legislation there and
how he works closely with farmers with
robotic milking systems.
In the last 25 years the number of dairy
farmers in Denmark has dropped by nearly
90 per cent to just below 4,000. Around
20 per cent of those use AMS and 95 per
cent of those using AMS, use either DeLaval
or Lely robots. There was a massive increase
in the number of AMS farms in the late
noughties, but very few have happened since.
This is mainly due to a doubling in land price
in the late noughties to 34,000 Euros per
hectare and subsequent drop to 20,000,
which left quite a few farmers in debt. AMS
systems seem to work better when there are
just 1-2 robots. Units with 4+ robots should
work, but in practice the system (mainly the
computer) does not seem to cope that well.
Danish agriculture is much more heavily
legislated than in the UK. Around 20 per
cent of farms are inspected by Government
inspectors each year. If they find things they
don't like, then they will inspect more
frequently which is obviously a cost to the
farmer. An example would be the number of
animal daily doses of medicine. If this gets
too high (over2.1), then the inspectors will
call more often. In addition, legislation does
not allow vets to dispense medicines, so vets
in Denmark rely on income from professional
fees alone.
Jorgen Katholm, a vet working at the Ag
Knowledge Centre, then gave us a talk on the
influence of AMS on udder health. Currently,
the national mastitis rate is 31 cases per 100
cows and only about 25% of cows get DCT
(and only about 6% get teat sealant). The use
of AMS has brought about a slight reduction
of SCC over the years, but the average is still
between 200,000 and 250,000 cells/ml.
The real penalty does not kick in until the
SCC is over 300,000 (1%), but the size of
the penalty does increase every week that this
limit is breached.
We were then whisked off to see our first
farm which has just under 300 cows with
four robots, producing three million litres
of milk with the farmer, his wife and one
assistant. The new AMS system was put
in about three years ago and the number
of cows expanded. Previously, there had
been a smaller herringbone parlour and
cow shed which now housed the bulling
and pregnant heifers. The place was very
clean and the staff were adamant that no
unmentionable stuff should be brought out
of the cow environment.
The second day saw us visit our second farm.
This was a smaller, pedigree unit which was
even cleaner and tidier than the previous day.
It was also even more automated with robotic
scrapers and automated feeding system.
The little mixing wagon hung from a rail on
which it moved around the shed feeding the
cows four times a day. At one end of the
cow shed, there were bunkers containing
the different feeds that the mixer would fill
up from. At the other end, was the office
and meeting room. There was even a camp
bed in the office which the herdsman said
he used occasionally!
Our final destination was Lely Scandinavia
HQ for talk on how cow traffic impacts on
cow health and production and how this has
impacted on the R&D at Lely and led them to
develop their product range to include such
things as AMS, robotic scrapers, etc.
On a wintry night in April,
nine
XLVet members made their way
to Arhus in Denmark in order to
observe robotic milking in action
and learn how one farm vet in
particular has specialised in
working with farms with robots.
By
Nick Eames
Tyndale Vets
Nick Eames
Cowshed
Automatic mixing system
DeLaval robot in action