Richard de Bie ‘FULLSENSE ensures that cows in heat automatically enter the separation room’

Richard de Bie’s dairy farm has been in his family for four generations. In 2019, he built a new barn for his cows and switched from a 2×10 milking parlour to two Fullwood M²erlin milking robots. ‘The transition to robot milking went extremely well,’ he says. ‘All the cows quickly got used to the new way of milking, and since then, the milk has flowed nicely.’ He tells us about labour savings, the calm in the barn and how he uses FULLSENSE to manage his herd.’

Labour savings and flexibility

Some 130 dairy and calving cows and 60 head of young stock roam on the farm’s 43 hectares of land. so, for Richard, the milking robots were a real boon. ‘I bought the robots mainly for the physical benefits they offered,’ he explains. ‘Milking twice a day by yourself is pretty tough. I also had to get up at 4.45 every morning. Now the alarm is set for 6.30 or 7.00 am, which makes a big difference.’

‘I still do my rounds twice a day, but the exact time doesn’t matter so much now. You can give yourself quite a bit of leeway. The robots have made everything a lot more flexible.’

Free choice and a calm barn

Richard is very pleased with the robots. ‘The barn is very peaceful,’ he tells us. ‘The cows decide whether or not to go to the robot. We don’t have to force or direct them, so they’re much calmer than before.’

‘You could compare it to navigating rush hour at Utrecht Central Station, constantly bumping into people as you try to find the right platform. That would make you a bit stressed out, too. But if you were to go there a little later in the morning or in the evening, it would be a very different experience.’

The barn is 55 metres long and 43 metres wide. Richard: ‘The cows have all the space they need. The same goes for the feed fence, where there’s room for 140 cows, so they never have to wait their turn for milking or for feeding.’

No need for additional separation fences

Richard also had other reasons for choosing the M²erlin milking robots. ‘We already had a Fullwood milking parlour, and I have a lot of confidence in their milking technology,’ he says. ‘Moreover, because of the way the M²erlins are constructed, with a double entrance and exit, there was no need to have additional separation fences. Plus, I could continue to use the collars and feed computer we already had, which was an additional cost-saving benefit.’

FULLSENSE robot software

Fullwood meanwhile developed an application to convert complex data from the M²erlin milking robot into bite-sized information: FULLSENSE. And Richard was one of the first farmers to test it.

Richard: ‘FULLSENSE uses clear graphs that make it easy to understand the data on things like milk quantity, milk content and conductivity. This is important because, naturally, I want to know how my animals are doing and take quick action if necessary.’

‘Because the information is presented in a clear way, you can make an immediate decision about what you need to do,’ he continues. ‘For example, you can see increases in conductivity, reductions in yield and changes in eating behaviour for each cow. These can all be sure signs that something is wrong and the cow needs to be examined.’

If a cow is in heat, FULLSENSE automatically moves it into the separation room. ‘This is great,’ says Richard, ‘because trying to separate the cow from all the others yourself will take you a long time.’

Increasing milk yields

Thanks in part to the robots, the rolling annual average now sits at an impressive 10,000 litres. Milk yields have increased by several litres per cow per day since Richard started using the M²erlin milking robots. The dairy farmer also now sees very few cases of mastitis. Results to be proud of!