Earlier this year, Progressive Dairyman announced GEA Farm Technologies planned to install the first-ever automatic rotary parlor in North America. The 72-stall rotary parlor was to be built at Mlsna East Town Dairy in Cashton, Wisconsin, and would have been the largest robotic milking system in place worldwide.
As planning for the project continued, farm owners Nick and LeAnne Mlsna and Nick’s parents, Dennis and Barbara Mlsna, questioned whether or not a parlor of that size would be able to meet the demands of their future 2,000-milking cow herd.
“They could not guarantee cows per hour,” Nick Mlsna says of his discussions with representatives from GEA Farm Technologies.
Still in need of a new parlor, the Mlsnas opted for an 80-cow rotary parlor equipped with automation features to help reduce labor and increase efficiency.
“I wanted to use automation as much as I could,” Mlsna adds. “This labor situation is nasty right now.”
The new parlor will have a teat prepping device to aid an employee in teat preparation. It will also be outfitted with an automated post-dipping and backflush system, which will reduce the number of milking employees by one.
In a statement to the press, GEA Farm Technologies stated it plans to officially launch the DairyProQ fully automated robotic rotary parlor in the first part of 2015 in selected key markets. PD
Read a related article: "Wisconsin dairy breaks ground for largest automatic rotary parlor."
