Milking technologies have changed over many decades, so have feeding strategies incorporated on the dairy farm. For those using automation to milk cows, providing feed at the robot was thought to be paramount to the system’s success. Recently, some automated milking producers have started to rethink this approach.

At the recent Tri-State Dairy Nutrition Field Day hosted by the Tri-State Dairy Nutrition Conference and allied industries, this topic took center stage. Speakers from various industry partners and academic institutions highlighted the promise and potential of technology in dairy farming.

Routines to maintain udder health change with the transition to automated milking. In a parlor, most of the monitoring of the cow, the equipment, and to some extent the environment, is part of the milking routine. It is completed by the workers in the parlor as they prep, strip and attach milkers. In automated milking, it is important to develop daily routines to monitor those milk quality control points in other ways. 

Milking automation represents not only a technological advancement but a fundamental shift in dairy farm management. While automation simplifies processes, the human touch remains indispensable. Successfully managing employees requires finding the right balance between leveraging the power of technology and nurturing a supportive, engaged work environment.

The best robot cows combine four factors – milk production, milkability, milking speed and trips to the robot. Each of these factors can be measured, and the measurements can be combined to rank the best robot cows.

While the vision of a fully automated dairy may seem like a distant dream, the technology to achieve this is rapidly evolving. This article provides a roadmap for dairy producers considering the leap into automation.

This article from researchers from Cornell University and Germany describes the individual, seasonal and herd-level variability of colostrum production and summarizes the association between animal individual factors – such as parity, sex of the calf, calf birthweight, as well as indicators of the cow’s metabolic status – and the yield and composition of colostrum.

Is your robot feed bin a place that you avoid until the cows stop eating? Here are some tips to help monitor and manage feed in the bin, before the cows run out of pellets or stop visiting.

In robotic milking systems, where cows need to move frequently to and from milking robots, lameness can severely disrupt operations. Here are ways to prevent and address lameness in automated milking facilities.

Efficiency is key to making the milking system as profitable as possible. Parlor turns can greatly impact milk collected per stall, and milkabilty measures of individual cows, like milking speed and milking duration, will impact how quickly cows make their way through the parlor.