Hazell Mullins: The cows, people, and robots of Dutch dairy farms
Tall The Majestic Yielding Cows, Is High National Treasure The Dutch Dairy Holsteins Friesian Their
The Netherlands is only the size of Munster with a population of over 17m people and a cattle population of nearly 4m. It’s a remarkable country with its reclaimed land from the sea, its existence below sea level and the fact one of its main crops is colourful tulips. In my opinion, their national treasure is their dairy cows, those tall majestic high-yielding Friesian Holsteins, every cow I wanted to sneak in my suitcase home.
I love visiting farms outside of Ireland as we can bring back ideas to our farms at home. Challenges are something that we all share no matter where in the world you farm, The Netherlands no longer has a Nitrates derogation from the EU, with their limit set at 170kg per hectare. We visited the North of the country where the land in the 1930’s was the sea and the farmers were commissioned to reclaim it to enable farming in the area. We met a 4th generation farmer of one of the reclaimed farms that now gets yields of 16 tonnes of grass per hectare and feeds this via an automated zero grazing called the Lely Exos. I was invited on the “Lely Journey” tour to visit the Lely Campus in Rotterdam and five robotic milking farms across the country. It was an eye-opening trip as it showed the realms of possibility that automation has in the future of farming.
Despite all the technology behind each farm, there was a dedicated farming family and a passion for cows that was obvious when we stepped off the bus on each farm. For me, I was particularly interested in seeing how the health and performance of the cows responded to having the level of automation on the farm. I have worked on many farms in practice with milking robots, it was a great opportunity to learn more about the machines and how I can better understand their functionality on farms. The average cell count across the five farms was 120 SCC, which is excellent considering that these farms are majority indoor systems.
Milking Robots have automatic cluster flush which means between cows all parts of the cluster are disinfected to prevent contagious mastitis. The teats are also prepped using brushes which stimulate the cow to let down her milk which reduces over-milking of quarters from bi-phasic milk let down. This is when a cluster is put on the cow before the hormone oxytocin has time to stimulate milk let down, which results in a lag period between the initial milk near the teat canal and the milk further up the udder. This can lead to excessive pressure on the teat leading to teat end damage which then can cause mastitis due to bacteria entering the udder via the damaged tissue. In a parlour to avoid this occurring 90 seconds between test prep and cluster application it is recommended to allow time for oxytocin to kick into action.
Another aspect of robotic milking is that each quarter is milked as a separate entity, it's amazing to see on the robot's computer how each quarter differs from the other and watch each cluster head come off one by one. This again leads to reducing teat end damage and over-milking. On the computer system also it flags cows that have a sudden rise in SCC which allows for early detection of problems using conductivity meters. I noticed that the queuing system was all very civilised, I have a feeling that they all had their place in line and that routine was still very much part of their day. I thought that the cows wouldn’t be as friendly due to the amount of automation on the farms but that couldn’t have been further from the reality. They were straight up to barriers to see what was going on, most let you pet their heads and they try and lick your trousers.
The Vector is an automated TMR wagon that supplies constant fresh feed on demand. What was very noticeable was that the cows knew there was no shortage of fresh feed so they didn’t all rush to eat when the Vector topped up their feed space. It was all very relaxed, like a large-scale buffet lunch, the equivalent of "all-you-can-eat" for cows.
My eye was always drawn to the cow's feet and the way they walked, mobility scoring is ingrained in my mind from college and it’s hard not to do it daily. There was only one farm where I thought foot health could be better, one farm had an automated foot bath that emptied and refilled after a certain number of cows passed through.
The secrets to a good footbath are a slow walk-through, good foot coverage and a low level of organic matter to interfere with the disinfectant’s mood of action. Indoor systems need to be of an excellent standard for cow comfort, one aspect out of sync can cause a domino negative effect on cow health.
If I could ask Santa for something it would be one of the automatic "Discovery" scrappers, the cubicles were spotless as these little robots were constantly on the search for more dirt. Because of this, the cows are so clean, helping to keep infectious foot issues at bay and also reducing environmental mastitis. The brushes they have mounted on the walls are a great help too to keep cows clean not to mention the enjoyment they bring. We got two stationary brushes in the cubicles this year and I love to see the cows queuing up to use them, perhaps I need to find myself a hobby.
On each of these farms, automation was used as a tool to help the farmer run their business, the farmer and their cows were still the key components to their success. Data is only as good as its interpretation, the world of agri tech is evolving day by day and it is an exciting journey to witness especially as a vet who loves data that is utilised to improve animal health. Overall it was a thought-provoking trip, meeting other farmers both Irish and Dutch, their farming families and agribusiness leaders, thank you Lely for the invitation.
