Ivor Davey - Dairy Housing and Design - (+44) 07751 050158
CASE STUDY 6: Grazing Robot unit - new build
Holditch Court, Chard, Somerset
New robot unit with ABC grazing
Background:
Ivor Davey started working with Holditch Court Farm in February 2017. Initially we were looking at a high welfare new cubicle building on the existing farm site. Over a period of time it became apparent that planning was going to be difficult due to a listed monument on the site.
We therefore moved the conversation on to new site options and decided to explore alternative locations. At this time we also started to discuss milk robots as the new building was likely to be farther from the milking parlour.
Over a few months we came up with some layout options and pulled together some detailed 2D drawings. These were for a new building with 2 milk robots. It had to offer grazing options for the herd, and we had to offer some segregation options, easy handling and high welfare housing.
The new building ticks all of these boxes and has proven to be a big sucess.
Construction work:
Following a difficult planning procees, the building work did not commence until the summer of 2018. This then progressed rapidly with cubicles and mattresses installed in the Autumn and the robots milking before Christmas 2018.
Installation:
We installed Wilson Ag Cowcoon flexible cubicles, with Pasture Mat mattresses complete with the 30mm premium pad foam and pillow brisket barriers. We also installed the AquaTip green drinkers with over 12cm per cow water access.
Additionally, we installed the ZigZag rubber at the feed barrier where cows are standing. To help with routinge herd management we have used self locking barriers down both sides of the building.
3D drawings:
When we had finlised the 2D floor plan and elevations drawings which were used for the planning application, we started working on the digital 3D model.
Over a period of time the detail in this increased and it has proven interesting to make comparisons between the initial design and model, and what we actually built.
This video talks through the story of the design and compares the 3D drawings to what we built. It also highlights how the ABC grazing gates work and shows the space and cow flow really well.
