"Also getting robots was another challenge. You’ve gotta have a challenge in life, you cannot do the same thing for 40 years and not change it. How boring would that be!"

 

We had an opportunity to speak with Neville Williams, a farmer from North Island, New Zealand, who runs an organic robotic dairy farm. During our discussion, we explored the reasons behind his farm's unique setup and delved into his motivations for embracing organic farming methods and automated milking.

What Are The Biggest Challenges With Farming Organically?

"Mastitis was our biggest challenge. With conventional farming you can treat your herd with antibiotics whereas we can’t. It took a bit but overtime you can develop a mastitis resistant herd to a degree, which is what we’ve done. We’re also limited with feeding. We’ve got feed out there which is more expensive as we feed organic molasses through the robots."

What Made You Go Organic?

"A challenge. Initially we were conventional farming then we moved to high output farming. Milked once a day for ten years and now we’re doing this. Been organic farming for 14 or 15 years. It creates more work for you being organic but the payout can be quite good."

Why Did You Decide on Robotics?

"I’ve always been interested in robotics way back 30 years ago. In Hamilton we used to go and have a look at a few robot farms and thought lely was the best one, they seemed to work the best. We’re used to milking about 350 a year, now we’re doing similar production from about 280, we’re peaking better. The robots have become more reliable over time. Early days there was a bit to learn but we got it all sorted and they’ve been going really well.

Also getting robots was another challenge. You’ve gotta have a challenge in life, you cannot do the same thing for 40 years and not change it. How boring would that be!"