Elton Vale at Chudleigh transformed into a robotic dairy

Elton Vale at Chudleigh is one of the growing number of Tasmanian dairy farms using technology and automation in their operations.

Farm owner Shannon Barwick spoke about Elton Vale’s journey into automation at FarmX.

Her grandparents bought the property in the 1950s, and she returned to the farm in 2023.

Ms Barwick then went about completely reinventing the farm.

“We shut down a 24-swing over herringbone shed, built a new shed, and installed four Lely Robots.

“We milked 230 cows in the first year, and this year we’ll aim for about 260.”

Labour was the key reason behind the transition.
“We didn’t want to have to deal with people not turning up for work, as well as making things safer.

“We now have so much time to do other projects on the farm.

“When we got the farm, it was quite run down after being leased for more than a decade.

“We’ve been able to restore it rather than standing on the concrete for six hours a day milking.”

Ms Barwick said that automation and robotics in dairy farming were becoming more common in Tasmania.

“I know that on King Island at the moment, Lely is setting up another three or four dairies with three or four robots in them.

“It’s the way of the future.

“With automation, everything can be done so much easier than the traditional way.