NAVAN — Wayne Edwards has installed a third Lely robotic milker at his Navan farm, just east of urban Ottawa. Edwards milks 135 cows and says with the third robot he’ll increase the milking herd to 150. But he’s not in a hurry. "As long as quota is $32,000 we won’t be buying any time soon."

There are now more than 100 Ontario farms using either DeLaval or Lely robotic milkers. Edwards, a third generation farmer, is among a small list of farmers who have more than one robot in the barn. Christian Lefleche, at St. Albert, also has three robots. A western Ontario farm switched earlier this year from a double11 parallel parlour to six robots – more than any other Ontario farm. A Quebec farm has 10 robots, sharing the world record with farms in the United States, Spain and several other countries.

Edwards installed his first two robots in 2001 and says it took about one year to get the software bugs out. When asked by friends and neighbours if he would do it again, he replies: "Definitely."

He researched and shopped around before taking a big step into this new technology. The tipping point came when a farmer in Holland told him: "You get three times a day milking for two times a day work."

Using robotics for seven years now, Edwards says one robot can handle about 2,000 litres of milk a day. "Fifty cows is the limit," he suggests. When you get more than 50 cows on one robot you get cows lining up to be milked, he says. In some cases, dairy farms will have a secondary milking system to handle the overflow of cattle.