The long-awaited Discovery 120 Collector is now available in North America. The Collector is completely unique in its design: it is an autonomous robot designed to clean solid floor barns as an alternative to traditional alley scrapers. It does this by sucking up the manure from the floor and dropping it at designated drop slots/holes. The Collector can be easily installed into any barn (except barns with sand bedding - for now!) or integrated into the design of new construction.
Besides the flexibility the Collector allows in barn design, it is much better for cow foot health and quality of life. Since it sucks up the manure as it travels, there is no wave of liquid ahead of the scraper for cows to step in. Obstacles, like downed (or stubborn) cows, are avoided by the Collector, keeping disturbance to the herd at a minimum. Water is sprayed from the front and rear of the robot to help with traction, and the amount of water can be customized easily as seasons change.
One Collector can clean up after ~100 cows. For larger operations, multiple Collectors can be used in dynamic ways to keep high-traffic areas clean and minimize any negative impact on the herd. Control and programming of the Collector is done with the intuitive Lely Control+ app (available for Android devices); an operator can easily change the schedule, frequency of cleaning, amount of water, and manually operate the machine wirelessly.
For more information on the Collector, contact our sales team today!