Schweizerhof - Wolfger Family - Milking from behind convinced us
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Farm information
MR-S2 milking robot
| Farmers | Wolfger family |
| Herd size | 55 |
| Race | Holstein |
| Number of milkings per day | 2,7 |
Milk weight | 37L/day/cow |
Milking from behind convinced us
Wolfger family farm has been active for several generations in Austria. In the spring of 2018 son Helmut Wolfger took over the farm from his parents.
In 2014, they opted for a BouMatic milking robot because their milking parlour became too small. Working time was also an issue with their previous milking parlour and they always needed two people to do the job. Thanks to the robot, the work goes faster and they only need one person. “Now this works in a much shorter time with just one person” says Helmut Wolfger.
Helmut : "We chose the BouMatic milking robot as it has the advantage of milking from behind”. This characteristic had always fascinated the Wolfger family. Besides the BouMatic robot construction is very robust and everything functions in one unit."
More flexible working hours, even time to go on holiday
Thanks to the robot, Helmut can organize his work much more flexibly. The time he gains through the robot is used to look after problem cows, to clean the cubicles and the slatted floors.
The daily workflow in the morning and in the evening consists in cleaning the robot, replacing the milk filter and checking the lists on the screen to see whether any cows do not visit the robot for milking. The software also detects the udder problems, or other problems. Most of the work is done in about one hour.
In the Wolfger family, everybody knows how to work with the robot; Helmut, his girlfriend and his parents. Thanks to this flexibility , they can go on vacation with peace of mind. The program is very user-friendly and easy to explain to a farmhand. By checking everything at an early stage, you can prevent disruptions.
As a result, Helmut also noticed that cow health has improved tremendously, because he now has much more time to look after individual animals. « I also noticed an improvement in the cow behaviour: cows are calmer in the barn when you don’t have to move them for milking, » he continues.
In the summer or the winter, I can go on holiday with my girlfriend, a week or two. That is not a problem because they can all do the job.
Helmut Wolfger
Easy integration into their existing barn
Besides, it was relatively easy to integrate the robot in their barn. They even gained more space when changing their milking system. The location where the parlour had been is now a holding pen and the calving box could be made bigger.
The installation of the robot went very fast: “The day the conversion started from the milking parlour to the milking robot, we milked the cows in the parlour in the morning. Then the parlour was dismantled and the robot installed in the barn. And in the afternoon we already milked in the robot.”
Helmut adds: “In the beginning, when we installed the robot, the cows got used to the robot even faster than us, the operators. And 2 months later, everything worked perfectly and the cows went all by themselves to get milked.”
Increased milking capacity
The MR-S2 robot has allowed them to increase their milking capacity. Before installing it, they milked 40 cows a day. Since the robot, the number has increased to almost 60 cows. Thanks to the double grabber system, the attach times have been significantly reduced and more cows can be milked.
Helmut says their objective for the future is not to expand the number of cows, but to optimize it. “I would like to increase the milk yield to 12000 L, which is now possible with this technology," he says
Service by Dealer Andreas Graf Melktechnik
Service is performed by BouMatic dealer Andreas Graf Melktechnik, which is located only 5km from the barn.
