For years I have toyed with the idea of an automatic gate opener to let the milking cows out of their paddock to walk home to the dairy for milking time. I have even in the past tried leaving an alarm clock in the paddock with the herd to get them moving in the morning.
This very wet winter has been the impetus for me to finally purchase an auto gate opener. At this stage I wish I had made this purchase years ago.
With the time to release the gate for both AM and PM milkings programmed into the controller it is just moved to the desired gateway at the end of each milking, it’s even solar powered. The cows get to walk home at their own pace and arrive at the dairy right on time for each milking. There are always some cows which we have to go and get but only a few. It works well on our farm as the person getting in the cows doesn’t usually milk them.
If the pasture is very wet the timer is set to let the cows out early and they can get off the pasture and avoid doing any futher damage to it.
Like so many new technologies in pasture management this little device is made in New Zealand.
Montrose Dairy 
looks ok where do you get them and how much cheers steve
Hi Steve
It is a Batt-Latch Gate Release Timer – I got mine from Novel Ways Products in NZ.
There is also an Australian supplier Grazetech
They cost around $350 AUD.
Goodluck, Graeme
Hi Gill and Graeme,
We had one of these and it was really good. Vast majority of cows bought themselves up and we only had to chase straglers. Only problem….the gate release would open and sometimes fall in the path of the cows….even with springy electric tape. It got trampled a couple of times and finally a fatal stomp by a cow eventually killed it! But it was really good while it lasted.