The feed bunk is one of the first places farmers look when they want to improve herd performance. Automated feeding can help. Get the feed right, and a lot of other things can fall into place. Get it wrong, and the impact can show up in everything from feed waste to less milk production.
For farmers like Jason Baus, Michael Telaak, and the Vettleson family, automated feeding has changed their herd management. Instead of feeding once or twice a day and trying to predict what cows will eat, now they can deliver smaller amounts of fresh feed throughout the day using real-time information to make better decisions.
Recently, these farmers were featured in a four-part video series, sharing their experiences with the Lely Vector automatic feeding system.
For Baus, owner of Tower View Acres in Wisconsin, one of the biggest changes after installing the Lely Vector was having fresh feed available to his herd throughout the day. “When I look at production, feed savings and efficiency of the Lely Vector, there's fresh feed all the time,” he said. “Cows don't need to go to the feed fence to eat. They can wait until the next batch comes up.”
That may sound like a small change, but Baus said it has made a difference in how cows move through the barn. Rather than having a large group rush the bunk when they hear the feed wagon, cows can eat when they want. That creates a more even flow and gives cows more flexibility in how they spend their day. The production numbers have followed.
Michael Telaak of Telaak Farms in New York has seen a similar change since moving to automated feeding and robotic milking.
“Once we implemented the robot system, we've only gone up in milk,” Telaak said. "We chose the Lely Vector system and make that investment because of how it will help us with our return on feed costs, which is the number one cost. So as our farm and our facility grows, it'll easily take on and handle more cows on the system."
The Lely Vector delivers what Telaak describes as “micro-feedings”—smaller, more frequent feed deliveries throughout the day. Rather than trying to guess once a day how much the herd will eat, the system continually adjusts to the cows' needs.
The Lely Vector takes some of the guesswork out of feeding and gives farmers another tool to fine-tune herd performance. In addition, he points to the time the technology has given his team to focus on the details.
“We've had more time to work on our feed quality, work on our facilities, work on the individual cow and the micro and the macro on the whole herd, fine-tuning everything to really reach that next level.”
Josh and Wyatt Vettleson, who own JW Vett Farms in Minnesota, said profitability comes down to seeing the numbers.
"We can tell exactly what the cows are eating with the monitors on their neck, which tells us the rumination. We're able to keep track of more factors than things we used to have to physically watch for. We spent a lot of time doing that, and we're not doing that anymore," Wyatt Vettleson said.
Before the Lely Vector, Baus’ herd averaged about 7,000 pounds of milk per robot per day. That number has increased to approximately 7,900 pounds. He has also seen roughly a pound more milk per cow per day, along with increases in fat and protein.
For Baus, it comes back to having feed available when cows want it, and not making them wait for the next feeding.
Telaak's farm is getting more production out of the same feed because of a reduction in feed refusals.
"By allowing the cow to eat when she needs it and not be waiting, it allows her to have a better rumen environment and leads to better production components," he said.
Milk production and components have remained consistent even during weather and seasonal changes for the Vettlesons.
Feed is one of the biggest costs on a dairy, so reducing waste can have a direct impact on the bottom line.
“The biggest financial impact would be how it creates better feed efficiencies,” Telaak said. “The biggest cost on your farm is feed.”
Before the Lely Vector, Telaak's goal was to maintain about 5% refusals to make sure cows never ran out. With the automated system, he says refusals have dropped to around 1%.
Baus has seen a similar change. Before installing the Vector, he estimates his farm was dealing with 600 to 900 pounds of refusals per day. Now, depending on weather conditions, the bunks may only need to be cleaned every couple of weeks.
At the Vettleson farm, the focus is also on knowing exactly what is being fed and what cows are eating.
“I like being able to look at that information day to day, see exactly what was fed, and there's no extra feed being fed,” Josh Vettleson said. “It's just exactly what the cows ate. We're just getting more out of our better cows."
The benefits of automated feeding go beyond the feed bunk. On a robotic dairy, feeding and milking can work together to keep cows moving naturally through the barn.
"I've seen changes in how the cows go to the robots," Telaak said. "The way our facility is designed, if the cow has to milk, it forces her to go through the robots. So, the Lely Vector has a real synergy there, where, whenever it feeds, it'll draw the cows to the feed bunk, thus drawing them to the robots."
Baus said his cows are now averaging about 2.3 milkings per day, and he believes the consistent availability of fresh feed has helped create a smoother flow to the robots. “If a cow wants to lay, she can lay,” he said. “If she wants to go milk, she can go milk, and she can eat fresh feed at pretty much any given point in time of the day.”
That flexibility is important for both the cow and the farmer. Baus estimated the Lely Vector also saves about an hour and a half of his typical feeding time, giving him more time to focus on other areas of the dairy.
At the end of the day, that's what these producers see as the real value of automated feeding. It's not just about replacing a feeding routine. It's about having better information, less waste and more time to focus on the cows.
Watch the entire Producer Proven Lely Vector video series to hear the farmers share more of their firsthand experiences with automated feeding. Hosted by Dan Schreiner, Proposition Manager, Manure & Feed for Lely North America, this four-part series highlights real on-farm results.