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Woodham, Ontario | There are quite a few here in Ontario, I know of a couple farms within a 15 minute drive. They seem to work well, but you have to change how you manage the cows. You still have to look after the cows and there will be a few that you will have to get by hand. Unfortunately milking 5 cows in one robot is a bit time consuming... The research here shows them to be viable upto 120 cows, or 2 robots. Beyond that a parlour is cheaper and will have more capacity.
We can grow very slowly because of our ~$25,000 per cow quota and limited availability of said quota. Robots make sense here for medium sized operations. If you want to grow, robots may not be the most cost effective in the long term.
We milk 400 cows and buying, 7 or 8 robots is way too expensive. Can build a really nice rotary parlour that milks 1000+ for much less. Lately we have had good luck with hired help, we have a few Mexican Mennonites and they have worked out well. | |
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robotic milking systems
