For robotic milking farms
The missing piece
in robotic milking
A robot milks the cows that walk to it. It can’t look at a foot, and it can’t dry off a cow. The INSPECT4 Irish Rollover Crate — a hydraulic hoof paring crush — is where that work gets done.
Built in Co. Cork · over a decade on Irish farms
Seen on a robotic milking farm
Drying off in the crate, on a robotic herd
Harte Peat Farm, milking on Lely Astronaut robots, dries off its cows in an INSPECT4 Irish Rollover Crate, every teat clean, visible and at working height. The crate is part of the farm’s everyday routine, not an occasional tool.
Harte Peat Farm, Co. Monaghan — a Lely robotic herd, drying off in the INSPECT4 Irish Rollover Crate.
Why feet decide whether a robot pays
Lameness quietly breaks voluntary milking
A robotic system depends on cows presenting themselves to be milked. When a cow goes lame she stops coming, and the labour the robot saved is spent again fetching her.1 Across Canadian robotic herds, researchers found lame cows were 2.2 times more likely to need repeated fetching, and around a quarter of cows per herd were clinically lame.2,3
The robot’s own data shows you the problem early — falling visits, growing fetch lists. What the shed usually lacks is a fast, safe way to act on it: a proper hoof crush.
What the crate is used for on robotic milking farms
This is everyday kit on a robotic farm — not something wheeled out twice a year:
- Treating lame cows and bulls
- Heifer teat sealingFirst-timers that have never stood in a parlour, restrained in under 21 seconds.
- Dry cow and mastitis tubesParticularly useful with robotic-milked cows that aren’t handled often.
- Hoof paring, trimming and blocking
- Dosing and routine handling
Drying off changed. Most sheds didn’t.
Selective dry cow therapy needs somewhere clean to work
Since January 2022, EU rules make selective dry cow therapy the norm: healthy cows get an internal teat sealant only, and Teagasc describes drying off as a surgical procedure demanding meticulous cleanliness.4 Compared with ropes, gates or working under a standing cow, the crate holds her fully supported on her side and the operator is never under or behind her — safer for the animal and safer for the person. The crate is CE certified. On a robotic yard there’s often no parlour and nowhere clean and safe to do it — least of all with heifers.
- Every teat visible and clean, cow on her side at working height
- Safe with heifers — fully restrained in under 21 seconds, one person
- Feet inspected, trimmed and blocked in the same pass
- Fixed crate sites on the yard; mobile crate tows to outfarms
We were running 8–9% lame… now we’re at about 1%.
John BourkeDairy farmer, Thurles, Co. Tipperary — milking ~370 cows
Now if I see a cow, I just divert her straight in and do her there and then. The quicker you deal with the problem, the quicker the cow heals.
Orla McEneryDairy farmer, Cahir, Co. Tipperary — uses the crate for teat sealing
Built in Ireland
Made to order in Ballynoe, Co. Cork
Designed, manufactured and supported on the O’Keeffe family farm since 2013. Fully hydraulic, galvanised throughout, every function on the remote — all four feet up and restrained in under 21 seconds by one operator. In use on Irish dairy farms — including robotic milking herds — for over a decade.
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References
- Matson, R.D. et al. (2022). Decision tree analysis to evaluate risks associated with lameness on dairy farms with automated milking systems. Frontiers in Animal Science, 3:999261. link
- King, M.T.M. et al. (2017). Cow-level associations of lameness, behavior, and milk yield of cows milked in automated systems. Journal of Dairy Science, 100(6):4818–4828. link
- Westin, R. et al. (2016). Associations of herd-level housing, management, and lameness prevalence with productivity and cow behavior in herds with automated milking systems. Journal of Dairy Science, 99(11):9069–9079. link
- Teagasc (2021). Drying off cows is in full swing — selective dry cow therapy compulsory from 28 January 2022 under EU legislation. link
The 2.2× fetching figure and the up-to-1-in-4 lameness prevalence are drawn from North American robotic-milking herds; Irish grazing systems may differ. No milk-yield or financial claim is made for the crate itself. INSPECT4 is not affiliated with or endorsed by Lely.