Lely Centre open days focus on grazing farms

Lely Center Eglish are hosting a series of virtual open days focusing on grazing farms.

The second event is on July 21st at 1pm online, with a c. 20-minute pre-recorded walk and talk interview and video tour of the farm followed by live Q&A’s at the end.

This event is on Fergal Kelly’s farm, Ballygawley, who runs 85 cows on one Lely Astronaut A5. Since starting the A5 in Oct 2018 the British Friesian type grazing cows have increased from c. 5800 ltr to c. 8000 ltr.

The open day on Fergal Kelly’s farm shows the potential increase in performance that can be achieved by using the Lely Astronaut milking robot and the information it generates to its full potential. Butterfat averages about 4 and protein about 3.3, i.e. 584kg of milk solids per cow per year on a diet of silage, grass and meal with a feed rate of about 0.3kg per litre. Cows get out to grass via the robot and a second separation gate to a single ‘A’ paddock of about 1 to 1.5 acres from late March/early April to mid October. They also have access to cubicles during the day and have access to silage and cubicles at night.

Cows visit the robot about 2.8 times a day during the winter and 2.3 times a day when grazing. The system was set up with a two-bay extension and three slurry channels that is kept clean with a Lely Discovery scraper, this meant the cost of the extension was kept to a minimum. With extra milk generated minus meal costs worth about £90 per day and the cost of a Lely Astronaut running at c. £50 per day the system more than pays for itself.

To find out more on how Fergal Kelly is achieving these excellent results from grass, register for the event on July 21st at 1pm, visit https://www.lely.com/gb/centers/eglish/ their social media channels or call the office on 02837548228.