Estimating efficiency in automatic milking systems

Abstract

Abstract. Automatic Milking Systems (AMS), also known as robotic milking, are internationally accepted as a valid alternative to conventional milking parlour, and also as an advanced mean for dairy farm management. The continuous growth of labour and production costs are leading to the development of new improved AMS machines, especially for heaviest milking operations. Accordingly, AMS presence in European dairy farms is expected to continuously grow in the near future. AMS reduces heavy workload and allows milking frequency monitoring of each cow, based on its production level or lactation stage, without any additional labour cost. In this study, milking data of 15 dairy farms located in the Veneto region (North-Eastern Italy) were analyzed with the aim to estimate the Automatic Milking Systems performances, and eventually recognize operative limits and bottlenecks. Results are also of interest to allow definition of relations between the AMS capacity and milking time, which is useful to optimize operations and increase profitability. In particular, data relative to milk yield, daily milking sessions per cow, effective milking time, rejected milking time, cleaning time and machine downtime have been collected and used to evaluate the operative performance of each farm. Specifically, the analysis highlighted an average of 17 h·day -1 of milking activity, 5.6 h·day -1 of inactivity and 1.4 h·day -1 for cleaning and self-diagnosis. Additionally, 40 % of the AMS reported the use for milking activities lower than 16 h·day -1 with idle periods exceeding in some cases 7-8 h·day -1 .

Comparison of results coming from automatic milking system in selected countries in Europe and U.S.

“…In a study conducted by Pezzuolo et al (2017), the average daily milk yield per robot was 1 950 kg with an average stock per robot of 52.9 cows. While in the study by Tremblay et al (2016), daily milk yield was 1 626.80 kg, with 50.53 cows assigned to a single robot, and the average milking frequency was 2.91 a day, with 6.84 minutes in average spent, being milked by the robot, High fat and protein contents in milk prove the high concentrations of dry matter.…”

Investigating off-grid systems for a mobile automated milking facility

“…Today, AMS are accepted internationally as a valid alternative to the conventional milking parlor and an advanced means for dairy farm management. In the past decade, 8,000 farms worldwide have installed AMSs [ 2 , pp. 736–741].…”

Profitability of usage of automatic milking systems

“…It is due to several advantages of the AMS, but mainly due to the fact that the consumption of work of animal breeders decreases essentially as milking of cows is done without direct participation of people. In the research [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] it has been stated that in case of using the AMS the animals were milked in average 2.6-2.8 times per day; such cow breeding conditions correspond to animal welfare conditions much better. Therefore, introducing the AMS, the milk yields increase by 5-10 % [1][2][3].…”