Robo-dairy farm goes up for sale
One of New Zealand’s most stateof-the-art robotic dairying operations is for sale.
Riverholme Pastures at Pleasant Point was the first location in the South Island to introduce a Delaval voluntary milking system, where cows walk themselves to the milking shed to be milked in fully automated milking units. It is one of the first automated dairy farms to come up for sale.
The Riverholme Pastures voluntary milking system cost about $400,000 more than a conventional 50-bail rotary shed. Owner Alvin Reid, who lived in Wanaka, would do his ‘‘shift’’ on the farm remotely in front of his computer.
He said it was ‘‘time to let someone else have a go’’. ‘‘It’s been the most fascinating and stimulating project I have ever done. It required a whole new mindset, completely different from traditional dairying. My focus is on my whisky distillery now, but I am happy to be involved in the farm in some way. There are a few options.’’
The 155 hectare farm was converted from a run-off block and opened as a robotic dairy farm in 2013. It was now in its fifth season of milking and fourth full calving.
The property consists of three adjoining landholdings. The central dairy platform milked 480 cows, producing about 200,000 kilograms of milk solids through the automated Delaval system.
Cows graze year round, not in dairy barns, but on open pasture. They walk up to three kilometres a day to get to one of the six Delaval robotic milkers, and at peak lactation will milk more than twice a day. Cows were rotated among the various grazing paddocks by electronic selection gates. The farm system was monitored by strategically placed cameras.
Feeding costs were kept low and robotic milking could be introduced without adding to pasture management or feeding costs. Reid said the drop in labour costs and animal health costs was balanced out with the higher capital investment. He said the potential for increased cow longevity, proactive farm management, and labour retention made the system worthwhile.