Automatic milkers

[knabe]

http://www.lely.com/en/home/media-centre/news-en-events/news/lely-introduces-a-new-generation-of-robotic-milking-systems-the-lely-a

Anyone see one of these or something similar?

 

[Till-Hill]

Friends mine have one. Milk 60-65 cows. Labor is hard to find around here and been working for them for 2-3 years now. Hope it lasts 10 years like Lely says it will. Expensive!

 

[knabe]

How do they get the cows used to them?

 

[CAB]

Good question Marc. Once used to them though the cows come in and get milked and are tracked of coarse through the use of a chip. A Dutch company has contracted a company here in Pella, Iowa to manufacture them in the USA. It will be interesting to see how many jobs this will cost. The cups are attached using a laser.

 

[knabe]

Dont tell Paul Ryan.

Low skill labor is the easiest to automate.

 

[Till-Hill]

I helped push cows into the robot the 2nd milking. We took a 3-4 hour break and by the time we had got back 6 cows or 10% had allready gone thru again. I think they said by about day 10 they were only locking up a cow or two to push thru and most of the ones that don't get it by then are going to cull themselves.

It's not going to be a huge job cost thing as we can't get anyone to show up to milk in the first place.

 

[vc]

Knabe, you ever go to the World Ag Expo in Tulare, it is quite the experience, I would recommend it to everyone to at least go once.
http://worldagexpo.com/

 

[flyintale]

There was an automatic set up at the farm show in Louisville last year.  Cost of that brand was $250,000 each.  The cows get fed when they go in to be milked.  It has an ID system so if the same cow comes in mutiple times, she will not get fed every time. 

As much as I would love to have one and save me some work, I can find more useful ways to spend that much money.