Dairy cows (first calving through to high lifetime productivity)

The core of the estate's dairy operations is the dairy herd consisting of 222 cows producing 12,989 kg per animal with 944 kg of fat and protein.

With an output of almost 46,709 kg and a lifetime productivity of 23.7 kg, Gut Hülsenberg is one of the top farms in Schleswig-Holstein.

Dairy cows are kept in two open-design freestall systems with insulated roofs and horizontal ventilation controlled via blinds. Another single/two-row freestall system, which was modernised in 2012, comprises 105 beds and three large calving boxes with deep litter.

Since the expansion in 2019, the dairy cows are kept in a two-row system with 250 cubicles. The cubicle system consists of raised cubicles equipped with appropriate comfort mattresses and is regularly covered with straw-lime mixed bedding.

All columns are equipped with rubber mat flooring and partly with emission-reducing columns. The columns are cleaned every 2 hours by two column robots.

Since October 2023, the young animals, dry cows and lactating cows have been fed with a fully automatic feeding system, the Lely Vector.

The conversion to milking with 4 milking robots took place in 2019 in connection with a comprehensive expansion. 
Milking is performed with 4 Lely Astronaut A5 milking robots. A new fresh cow area for approx. 30 animals was also created. The animals are under constant observation via video surveillance.

Since the introduction of robots, dairy cows have been fed with a partially mixed ration. In total, a maximum of 40% concentrate of the total dry matter intake of 24.5 kg per animal is fed per day. 4 kg of concentrate plus 250 g of TIRSANA AMS in the robot are distributed among the 3.1 - 3.3 milkings per day.