Robotic Dairy

Robotic Dairy

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Members of the Idaho Farm Bureau Dairy Committee recently paid visit to Myers dairy in Payette County to learn about robotic cow milking. Chairman Steve Ballard of Gooding County says robotics is a hot topic of discussion in the industry. “Labor today being short, this is one of the main topics that is being talked about in the industry with the problems with immigration that we fight, this also lends another hand to that. What does it actually take to run a robot dairy, that is what we are interested in.” Owner Jared Myers says his cows are happier being milked by a robot. “They don’t have the pressure and stress that they used to. Everything is on their timeframe, their schedule. They eat when they want, they milk when they want, they lay down when they want, they don’t have as many people in the pen taking them somewhere.” Myers dairy milks 500 cows. What Myers and others who use robotic milking systems are able to accomplish, they can get more than three milking’s with the same labor they would have previously used for twice a day milkings. This technology is getting very advanced even including brushes that automatically clean off the utter and lasers examining the utter for placement of the milking suction cups.
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