BACKGROUND Olly Reed farms with his parents, Andrew and Wendy, at France Farm, Cullompton. In November 2016 they constructed a new dairy unit on greenfield land adjacent to the farm’s old buildings. 160 cows are housed there all year round and milked by three Lely robots. “The aim of the investment was to modernise the farm’s housing and milking facilities and to make the entire system easier to manage,” says Olly. “We had a choice of installing a large herringbone parlour and milking three times a day, or installing robots and letting the cows decide when and how often to be milked. With reliable labour becoming increasingly difficult to find, it was an easy decision to make.” CHALLENGES Still, monitoring heat and health with a small staff remained an issue. Previously, a smal

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