The Barry Crosby Farmer Story

A Wexford farmer who entered dairying in 2021 is delighted with the flexibility, quality and peace of mind that the Lely Discovery Collector C2 has delivered since installing the revolutionary manure robot.

Barry Crosbie, who lives with partner Jenny and their four children Maya, Faye, Sam and Ella, tends to 175 dairy cattle on their 250-acre farm near the village of Foulksmills, 22 kilometres from Wexford Town.

“Three years ago, we started off with 140 cows, we’re currently at 175 and the plan is to get up to somewhere around the 200 mark,” said Barry, whose parents also live on the farm.

“Initially, we were scraping out the passageways and cleaning out under the cows in the time-honoured, traditional way but one particular day, my brother was here on the farm with me when he said to me: ‘Well what about Lely?’ Now it hadn’t entered my head previously  to install a robot to do the job – my intention was to go with traditional scrapers. But what changed my mind for me was when I did a bit of homework into what the Discovery Collector C2 could actually do: its ability to scrape all the passageways as well as cleaning the slats and the collecting yard. And learning about the level of job it could do when it came to the collecting yard made it the best overall option for me – and it’s worked very well for me since day one.” 

Cleaner barn floors 

An extension within the Discovery portfolio, the Lely Discovery Collector C2 cleans solid and slatted floors and collects manure as opposed to scraping or pushing it.

A wireless charging station ensures that the Discovery Collector C2 charges faster – charging 40% of the time while driving for 60%. More driving means more manure collecting means healthier cattle.

Installing the Lely Discovery Collector C2 required some in-shed modifications, as Barry explained. “We had to put timber barriers around the troughs and stock boards at either end of the shed. We also put in flow channels at the top end of the shed since the robot is hoovering up the slurry on the solid passages. Once it gets to the flow channel, it switches off and drops the slurry into the flow channel, returning the slurry to the tank; it never carries the slurry too far. Then it returns to the charging station and fills with water before it’s back out working on the solid passages.”

The Discovery Collector C2 can be operated via a mobile phone app, increasing flexibility levels for farmers. “It’s a very straightforward system,” said Barry. “My 10-year-old daughter can use it! If there are cows lining a few more passages than others, then you can set the robot to clean those particular passages more frequently. It cleans the slats each night around 10 or 11pm when the cows are mostly lying down in the cubicles, well away from the feed rails.”

Top class Lely support 

Support provided by Michael O’Grady and his Lely Center Kilkenny colleagues, be it general advice or maintenance, is only ever a phone call away. “The lads in LC Kilkenny are top class; they come out to us, service the Collector C2, put tyres and rubbers on it, change the oil in the hubs and it’s all done very efficiently – a bit like the machine itself – thorough and very dependable.”

Barry added: “From a time and labour perspective, the Collector C2 has been brilliant. Calving is our busiest time of year; there’s so much going on. And while we’re busy feeding and looking after the calves, the robot is working away unknown to you a good deal of the time. For example, on a Sunday morning when I’m out milking the cows and all that goes with that job, the Collector C2 is doing its own job and is after saving me a huge amount of time that morning. It means I can go to a match with the children or we can head out for a good stretch of the day as a family. And I’m doing that knowing I’ll be coming home to a clean shed. There’s one less big job for me to do every day and that’s another huge benefit the Collector C2 is after delivering for me – for all of us.”     

The Lely Discovery Collector C2 sprays water from two points: the front and back - at the front for better manure collection and at the rear to leave the floor wet for more grip. This water is tanked independently and stored in two water pockets in the manure tank.

As the manure tank fills, the volume of the water bags decreases, which creates more space for manure. This makes it a compact machine; meaning cows can move around it more easily.

An easy adaptation 

Barry continued: “I did wonder how the cows were going to react to the machine going around the shed. But within 24 hours of installing the Collector C2, the cows weren’t paying a blind bit of notice to it; they’d stay lying down in the cubicles while the machine was working away behind them.”

“Since installing the Collector C2, the cows are cleaner,” said Barry. “We lime the cubicles every morning but that’s a job that’s now only done once every day due to the ground being so much cleaner; the cows are not stepping back into the cubicles with dirty hooves. That has led to us having a lower cell count which means we have healthier cows with cleaner hooves and very little lameness. So we have a cleaner barn floor, the cows have cleaner hooves, there’s less manure in the cubicles which means the cows have cleaner udders so all in all, it’s a real win-win for us.” 

Barry also reflected on his ‘before and after’ experiences when it came to the Discovery Collector C2.  

“Before we had it installed, we had a higher cell count and more cases of mastitis than what we have now. We had to scrape the passageways and also strip a lot more cows in the milking parlour both in the morning and the evening. Due to the dirt on the mats, we were also double liming the mats every day. But once we had the Collector C2 up and running, the level of mastitis fell within a few days and then within a week, we had no cases at all, which only goes to show how good a job the Collector C2 does.”

Barry concluded: “Flexibility is so important for farmers today and that’s what’s made working with Lely and installing the Discovery Collector C2 one of the best decisions I’ve made since we entered dairying. It goes everywhere in the shed – and has made life so much easier for me.”