We are looking forward to welcoming the Brake family into our Lely Center Mid-Atlantic group with their addition of the Lely Vector which will be installed in the coming months. The Brake family owns and operates Oakleigh Farm in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania where they milk 120 cows and farm 400 acres. After being interested in automation for many years, they were struck by a barn fire in 2019 which required them to make a lot of decisions fast. Matt Brake, a son on the farm says,
We had also lost one of our tractors in the fire. I had researched another robotic feeder but really liked the Vector’s ‘feed to need’ feature where it scans the height of the feed at the feed fence to distribute the proper amount of feed to the cows who need it most. We also liked that the vector was also a feed pusher. After running a cost analysis on purchasing a used tractor and new mixer wagon versus the price of the vector, it was a no-brainer. The Vector is going to pay itself off in fuel and labor savings alone in just a few years.
The Brake family will be utilizing the Vector with their existing tower silo set up. They currently have a 20’ Jamesway volumaxx ring drive which stores their haylage, a 24’ Big Jim for corn silage, and a 14’ surface drive for corn silage. They will be adding two grain bins to the setup as well. The Vector will be feeding the milking cows, close up dry cows, and heifers to be bred, which is about 140 head total. The farm’s biggest goal is to give the cows a more consistent ration throughout the day to promote better rumen health. We are confident we can help the Brake family achieve this goal with the Vector, and we are excited to see all their future success!
To learn more about the Lely Vector and how it may improve your operation, click here!