Robotic system nurtures calves

The Mieglichs, who milk 110 cows at Paringa View, Charleston, SA, began construction on a shed to house automatic calf feeders in November, and say the results have been surprising.

“I’m really impressed with how hygienic this system can be,” Mr Mieglich said.

The shed houses about 15 calves at the moment, with space for up to 60.

In time, Mr Mieglich said it would be able to hold up to 70 with plans for a further extension.

The calves have National Livestock Identification Scheme tags from birth, and are placed into the colostrum pen for five days.

From day five they are moved onto the automatic feeder.

“It needs minimal training; I’ve not had to chase a calf in the second day,” he said.

The machine identifies the calf by scanning its NLIS tag to know how much milk is available.

The calves stay in this pen until they are four weeks old, and have access to milk as well as grain to learn the taste.

At four weeks they are moved into the mature pen, to avoid bullying, where they have access to two feeders – one milk and one grain calf meal.

While the calves are allowed up to six litres of milk a day, they can only have 2L in one drink and have to accumulate another 0.5L before they can drink again.

“They come back every so often to check,” he said.

“They get to know very quickly if nothing is available to back out.”

From three to six months, the calves will be in the weaner pen, which is still under construction.

Mr Mieglich was impressed with how well the system was working.

”The biggest benefit is the calves are always content,” he said.

“Food is always available, whether milk or grain, instead of the previous system of feeding twice a day.

"We never get a calf singing out for food.”

Mr Mieglich said the hygiene side had also performed well, with the constant movement of milk through the tube seeming to avoid problems with bugs.

The system is flushed with dairy detergent weekly.

“We’ve never had a case of the scours in five months,” he said.

Mr Mieglich said so far, the construction of the shed and system was equivalent to the labour costs of feeding calves.

He estimated they would previously spend about 15 hours each week in feeding calves, compared with a maximum of four hours under the new system, which includes clean up.

“It will have paid for itself in the first year,” he said.

The new robotic calf feeding shed is just one of many changes happening at Paringa View dairy.

Shane Mieglich said there were three major projects underway, with plans for more.

With a small acreage, Mr Mieglich said the farm needed a focus on a higher quality production herd.

Because of this, they have just converted to a stud herd.

There is also a focus on pasture renovation, with new pastures and intensive farming.

The third change is the emphasis on getting young stock off to the best start with new rearing systems.

He said part of this was achieved by having shelter for calves, with research showing cooler conditions could be best for development.

“They are at the peak of their growth and this can impact their production years,” he said.

These calves, and the robotic system, also play a part in future plans for the farm.

“Our long-term goal is to set up the first robotic dairy in this part of SA,” he said.

“These calves will be reared in an automated system.”

Within the next three to five years, the Mieglichs plan to install robotic milking systems into the existing eight-a-side double herringbone dairy.

Mr Mieglich said with the farm’s close proximity to the city, there was also potential to become a showcase site, with schools able to come out and see where milk is produced, and that animal welfare was a high priority.