The 23,000 square metre barn, completed last September at a cost of $22 million, was the third of its kind built by the van Leeuwens, but the first of its scale.
Behind the drive to install the barn was the premium price paid for winter milking, which a robotic system enabled, and a shortage of skilled staff.
Land is also getting more expensive,» Aad said.
The barn environment allows optimal feed management, cow comfort and access to comprehensive herd information in order to make crucial decisions on-farm.»
Inside the barn, the cows decide when to eat, sleep and milk, through the DeLaval voluntary milking system.
The van Leeuwens have made the barn and the surrounding farmland a «sustainable» unit. All silage for the cows is grown and harvested on-farm, and effluent from the barn, which is sprayed on the pasture, is the only fertiliser.
«Eighty per cent of the world’s dairying is done under cover now,» Aad said.
«New Zealand is an anomaly in that it’s still mainly pasture-based. The barn is increasingly being seen as a viable solution to cow comfort and environmental concerns.»
BY THE NUMBERS:
* This is the world’s largest robotic dairy barn, according to DeLaval, the company that installed the robotics for the barn.
* It is 200 metres long and 60 metres wide, or 13,000 sqare metres, about the size of two rugby fields. Timaru’s CBay pool hall is just 2240 square metres.
* It has the capacity to house 1500 cows under cover.
* The cows will spend 10 months of the year in the barn.
* It cost $22 million, almost as much as the whole CBay complex ($23.5 million).
* At full capacity, the barn will produce 1.2 million kilograms of milksolids per year.
Source: Stuff.co.nz
