regarding this: 

How early do you start training your heifers for the parlour, and do you run them in with the herd before or after calving?

regarding this: 

How early do you start training your heifers for the parlour, and do you run them in with the herd before or after calving?

We start about 6 weeks before calving. Since we are seasonal calvers it means majority of the herd are dry so milking herd size is small with a lot more free robot time and space for the heifers to be trained. Adding the heifers to the herd in batches so there is not to many to push through robots at a time. You can put the heifers on horizon a a group on “training mode” which means the robot will feed them and make heaps of noises, move arm around without actually touching the heifer. We find the grazeways are the hardest thing for them to get used to so for the first couple of times through the yards we turn the air off so the ram gate stays open. After being through yards they do go with the herd but you’ll find for while they won’t come back through on their own so have to been fetched and also means they will spend most of the time in one grazing section instead of moving with the herd through ABC 

Leave them in herd for at least two weeks. We normally leave them in until they are ready to be drafted straight into springer/calving paddock