Gloucestershire, located in the south of the United Kingdom, is home to Court Farm. Richard Carter and his family run the family business here, which has been around for nearly 30 years. Robotisation is an important topic at the dairy farm. And after working with another manure robot, they finally chose the Barn-E from JOZ. What does the slurry collector robot do for Court Farm? And how does Richard see the future?
Substantial growth
Richard runs the dairy farm with his wife and her parents. ‘My parents-in-law started the business in the 1990s. Back then they had about 50 to 60 cows and did everything themselves,’ Richard explains. ‘Things have changed a lot since then. We farm on about 120 hectares of land and have grown considerably in the number of cows.
Over the years, there have been many developments at Court Farm. ‘For example, we switched from conventional milking to robotic milking. We are increasingly using automation and robotisation. These innovations have really helped us. We have become much more efficient and have a higher milk yield,’ he explains.
Barn-E manure robot
‘We are now making more use of the resources available today,’ Richard states. ‘That’s also why we chose to switch to the Barn-E from JOZ.’
The reason for choosing the Barn-E? ‘We came across JOZ on Facebook. Ultimately, the capacity the Barn-E can handle is one of the main reasons why we chose this manure robot. The barn in which the Barn-E operates has three manure alleys. It can easily handle this surface area. Another advantage is automatic mechanical dumping of manure. This was a big benefit for us.’
Better hygiene in the barn
Choosing the Barn-E is already paying off for Richard in the first few months. ‘The floors are much cleaner and the cows themselves are cleaner as a result. That makes for better hygiene in the barn,’ he says. ‘The robot simply provides a better environment for the animals. Moreover, it is simple to clean and operate, which enhances the ease of use.’
The animal friendliness of the manure robot is also an important issue for Court Farm. ‘The cows don’t actually pay attention to the way the Barn-E moves around the barn. It was not a shock to them, which of course is very nice. Lots of safety measures have also been incorporated so that the Barn-E doesn’t bother the cows.’
New Barn-Es
The experience with the Barn-E has been so good that a second has already been installed and a third will soon be arriving. ‘We want to match the success of the barn in which the Barn-E operates in the other barns. In fact, we still have a barn that has an outdated manure scraper and we still do part of it manually with the tractor. To reduce the labour involved, we chose the JOZ Barn-E for those barns as well.’
Court Farm has good contact with dealer Wooldridge Milking Technologies. ‘A fine company,’ in Richard’s opinion. ‘JOZ sent someone over to help with the installation, which went very well. In fact, other farmers regularly come to our yard wanting to know how the manure robot works. So we show them how the manure robot helps us farm more efficiently.’