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Moving the whole herd and switching to milking robots at the same time: at dairy farm Dwars in Neede, Mart Wagevoort, Debbie and her parents tackled it deliberately and well prepared. When the neighbour’s barn came up for sale, they seized the chance to develop the farm further. The barn was newer, had room for more cows and made the step to robotic milking possible. At the start of November 2025 they moved 110 cows to the new site.
SecureCattle: practical and easy to use
SecureCattle came up through their sales representative. “We had no experience with it ourselves yet, but the advice sounded logical,” says Mart. “We got curious and wanted to try it.” Above all, it turned out to be practical to use. “It’s easy to give. We gave it after milking, which worked well. We couldn’t lock in all the cows, but most of them. It’s very doable.”
First the dry cows, then the milking cows
The move went step by step. First the dry cows went to the new barn, two to three weeks before the milking cows. “We dosed them with SecureCattle the day before the move,” says Mart. “They already know the cattle truck fairly well, which helps.” This approach let the dry cows get used to the new surroundings while the arrival of the milking cows was being prepared.
Calm in the barn from the very first moment
On 4 November 2025 the milking cows followed. They too were given SecureCattle after milking the day before. Loading and unloading went smoothly. “After milking they actually walked straight
into the cattle truck one after the other,” says Mart. On arrival, the cows came out of the truck calmly and went straight to the feed fence. “I definitely found that positive.” What stood out most: right after the move there was calm in the barn, and that calm clearly stayed during the first days.
Back to routine quickly and production back up to level
Just 1.5 hours after arrival, the cows could get to know the milking robot. “The first time went much better than we expected,” says Mart. Overall he looks back positively: “Together with the transport, SecureCattle helped us. We didn’t lose any cows, that’s the biggest gain. Four months after the move we are milking an average of 37 litres per cow per day, with 3.3 milkings.
