John Horgan

John Horgan from Enniskeane in Co.Cork first started robotic milking 3 years ago with 60 cows on 1 Lely Astronaut A5 robot and just last year added a second one while increasing his spring calving herd to milk 90 cows. Since installing the robots, John has found both an increase in performance and improved lifestyle balance.

“Lifestyle was the biggest factor – I remember standing in the yard one day and I said to myself, all I want to do is make my life a bit easier. Hard work wasn’t the problem, it was time. I have a young family; I work off farm contracting with my brother and sourcing a relief milker was getting harder and harder”.

John visited at least 5 farms before deciding to put in a robot, one of those farms being his brother Brian’s who was a new dairy entrant in 2020 and now has 2 Lely Astronaut A5 robots also. He saw how his brother was able to balance farming with his business, as well as a young family also.

John feels the information the Astronaut gives him is key to make management decisions daily. Some of the advantages he finds include:

Herd Health: Herd health reports on Horizon allow for any sickness to be detected early allowing for more effective treatment – in some cases before the cow realises it herself.

Milking Frequency: John’s cows average close to ?? milking’s per day across the lactation resulting in increased milk yields.

Heat Detection: Horizon’s activity report can be used to detect heats and automatically draft them for AI.

Cell count and udder health monitoring: The provision of daily cell counts for each cow gives him greater confidence in identifying the cows suitable for teat sealer only and also he can direct the milk from higher cell count cows out of the bulk tank and use for feeding calves instead.

“It’s saving me a lot of time and labour - nothing else could milk a cow as well as that robot does. It milks out each quarter properly, doesn’t over milk them or damage the teat and they’re all sprayed. Even calving season is way easier – I put the collars on the heifers a few weeks before calving and put them through the robot on training mode and it makes everyone’s lives way easier.”

John farms 80 acres on the home block, while leasing a further 20 acres in an outside farm. Getting grass allocation and cow movement was the hardest part for John, but with the support of the Lely Center Mitchelstown team the cows now move from the robot to their grass allocation through the grazeway gates at their leisure.

“The cows are way happier. It took awhile for them to get used to it, but once they got it, we were away. FMS were a fantastic help with getting them used to it, I mentioned an issue I was having to them over the phone regarding grazing, and by that evening after following their advice, it was all sorted. Even mechanically with the robots, day or night the service team are always there to help, either over the phone or out on farm”.