by Kalynn Sawyer Helmer
AgriNews Staff Writer
CARRYING PLACE — Goreland Farms held an open house on April 13 to exhibit the three new Lely robotic milkers on the 650-acre farm. Originally the barn sported a herringbone parlour but in August of 2017 the barn was retrofitted as a freestall with the robotic milkers and a milk jug.
The change was initiated due to milk production and milk quality issues. The robots have made the farm manageable for owner Gerald Pulver along with wife Dineen, son Jarrod and daughter Ashley who works there part-time.
Since the retrofit in August, milk production has been climbing and Gerald said he hopes to get back above the 40 kilo mark soon. The barn houses 160 milking cows plus some dry cows and bred heifers.
While the robots mean shorter days for the family, they also make for comfortable cows. The attached milk jug that was added at the same time is fed from a second milk line off of the robots. “Any treated milk, colostrum milk or high somatic cell count that we deem goes through the milk jug and then is fed to the calves,” explained Gerald.
The open barn saw roughly 500 people make their way through. Gerald said there was a good mixture of county councillors, friends, people interested in how robots work and producers wishing to see the machines in action before making the decision on their own farms. “We had a really excellent day, the weather was perfect because everyone wanted to be away from home and it didn’t start raining until the afternoon. It was an amazing turnout,” he said. Visitors came from as far as Cobourg and there were a number from the Ottawa and Cornwall areas.
