Company makes its 5,000th robotic milker

Rotaries, parallels, and herringbones are the milking parlors of choice for dairies in the U.S., but in much of the rest of the world the story is much different.

Smaller herds, plus labor situations sometimes even more challenging than what U.S. dairies face, are increasingly making robotic systems the preferred pick for milk producers abroad.

This trend in automated milking reached a big milestone in April when DeLaval – just one of many robot equipment manufacturers around the world – announced production of its 5,000th robotic milking unit which was sold to a 33-year-old farmer in Germany.

Since their introduction in the 1990s, robotic systems have evolved almost exponentially in terms of features and sophistication. Comparing their evolution to cellular phones is a good analogy.

Modern robotic systems typically surpass human-operated parlors in terms of data collection and milk quality analysis. In addition to automatic identification and milk weight recording, robots act as challenge feeding stations for every cow in the herd. Both the amount of grain fed and number of milkings per day can be set for each individual cow. Some units measure both milk flow and somatic cell count on a quarter-by-quarter basis, and some even record body weights as cows stand in the stall.

Milking clusters are automatically rinsed between each cow, and a full washup sequence is performed at pre-set intervals. In case of equipment failure, units have a built-in paging feature to the owner or manager.

Integrated herd management programs generate a myriad of “look at these cows” lists and other reports identifying animals that suddenly drop in production, spike in SCC, or do not visit the robot their allowed times per day.

Organic and robotic

It’s not a typical combination — organic and robotic, that is. But it is the defining characteristics of Village Edge Farms in Nelson, Wis. where organic is high-tech, too. Located along the Mississippi River in west central Wisconsin, the farm is operated by brothers Greg and Dennis Hetrick. Greg says they became interested in robots because they were “tired of milking cows.”

Just last week, we visited Village Edge Farms as part of a bus tour organized by Lely of farms using robotic milking in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Village Edge installed one robot in January of 2009 and one in April of 2009. Though most farmers at each tour stop conceded that the first few days of the robotic setup were challenging for cow training, and nutrition can be a delicate balance when you are offering a high-energy pellet to entice cows into the unit, “I know my cows better now than before,” Greg Hetrick says. The transition allowed Hetrick to get to know cows not just by their udder through a small view in their old parlor. Hetrick now spends more time working closely with individual cows because of the overwhelming amount of information the robotic units tell you about each cow’s health and performance. Milk weights, each quarter’s conductivity, and even the weight of each cow is recorded every time they are milked. The next challenge for the farm: combining robotic cow flow with summer organic grazing. Greg Hetrick is shown in the photo at right sharing with other producers on the tour about his experiences.