Stocking Numbers

[Heritage Farm]

Hi to All,

 

I hope the season is progressing well. We are having quite a good spring thus far.

 

We are positively inclined to install two robotic milking units within a year. We have had both Lely and DeLaval look at our farm and it is agreed the layout is quite suitable for a robotic milking system. We had been thinking our 180 cow split calving herd could be milked by two robots, but are now thinking that our stocking levels could be higher through improved farm fertility and the use of grain that would be bought in to entice them into the milking parlour.

 

So a question we are asking is ‘could 200 cows be milked by two robots in a split calving herd?’ or alternatively ‘should we construct an additional small plant to milk the colostrum cows?’ I had been thinking that a 6 or 8 bale herringbone would be very useful for ancillary stock handling procedures. And would not mind at all manually milking the colostrum cows as these are the cows that we mostly have to treat for mastitis.

 

Kind regards

David Yates

South Auckland NZ

[bob lewis]

HI TEAM
       GOOD TO READ YOUR INFO ON FUTURE WORKINGS
 
                                                           THANKS
                                                                    BOB
 
                                             "MOUNTVIEW HILLs"
                                                               KUNDIBAKH via WINGHAM
                                                                          N S W 2429
                                                                        
        
 

---

Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2009 14:15:11 +1300
From: herita...@clear.net.nz
Subject: [FutureDairy] Stocking Numbers
To: futur...@googlegroups.com

[Max Jelbart]

Hi David,

 

Lely told me at the Poowong field days last week that 1 robot will only milk 70 cows!!

 

Not sure if Max Warren is a participant of this group but he has been using robots in Gippsland for some years, has just updated them, and would be worth talking to.

 

I can get you his contact details but will not put them on the chat line so if you reply to me.

 

Cheers

max

 

---

[Kendra Davis]

Hi David and others

I guess in my opinion the short answer is that 200 cows is too many.  This is getting very close to the limit for three machines if we work on 70-75 cows per machine.  However there is never an easy answer and there are a number of things to consider.

1. 200 cows may be possible for someone who has a lot of experience with AMS farming and has a very well managed and efficiently operated system.  Particularly if the herd is only going to peak at 200 cows for a very short period (say 1 month).  Also in such a scenario you would be expecting that there are a mix of stages of lactation (particularly early and late lactation cows) and these cows are relatively low producing and could cope with a lower milking frequency than the average Australian farmer would typically accept.  The late lactation cows could milk at once-a-day and early's at around 1.8 milkings/day.  Assume 45 cows/machine at 1 milking/day, 45 cows/machine at 1.8 milkings/day = 126 milkings/machine/day. 
2. Note that the Greenfield project (cows averaging around 3,500 litres from memory) were successfully operating at up to 90 cows per machine with lower milking frequencies around 1.3 milkings/cow/day.
3. It is often more appropriate to think of the capacity of the machines with regard to litres harvested per day or milkings per day rather than number of cows which is largely dependent on yield per cow and milking frequency per cow per day.  I would suggest that around 150 milkings/day and/or about 2,000 litres/day is about the best you could expect with a pasture based system.  Even these numbers will likely be a too optimistic until you and your cows have up to about 12 months experience.  During the first 12 months I would suggest about 120 milkings and perhaps around 1800 litres but be more realistic.
4. Your idea of a purpose built small capacity conventional milk harvesting system does have some benefits but I think that you would quickly get sick of the idea of milking cows manually when you have an AMS milking most of the herd.  In this regard you will not capture one of the greatest lifestyle benefits of AMS (being that your day is no longer dictated by milking cows twice a day).  Also this facility used in the way that you describe will only take some pressure off the system (depending on your calving spread) .  A much cheaper animal treatment area could be built in conjunction with the AMS dairy - depending on your requirement.
5. At Camden we have comfortably milked up to 75 cows/machine but have still felt that the system is being reasonably well pushed at that (remember we have a fair amount of experience but our downfall is that we can only operate with two-way grazing - three way would be an advantage).  We currently have 85 cows per machine in milk (total herd size of 170) and are trying to maintain 1.8 milkings/cow/day (split calving) with cows producing around 7,500 litres/year.  We really feel that our machines are truly "over stocked" at the moment and would not suggest that this is sustainable. 
6. I really think that if you do the numbers regarding the cost of including one more AMS unit compared to building an ancillary milk harvesting facility there will not be a lot of difference in capital expense.  Have you done these numbers? 

I hope that these points have been of some use to you.  You will also find some information at  http://groups.google.com.au/group/futuredairy under "files" with an information sheet on machine capacity.  Happy to discuss this further if this raises more points of discussion with you.

 

Kind Regards             Kendra   Dr Kendra Kerrisk
FutureDairy AMS Research Leader www.futuredairy.com.au			Faculty of Veterinary Science The University of Sydney
0428 101 372 (mobile) 02 4636 6327 (dairy office/fax) ken...@usyd.edu.au

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Vaughan Jones]

On 4/10/09 3:18 PM, "bob lewis" <boble...@hotmail.com> wrote:

> We are positively inclined to install two robotic milking units within a year.
> We have had both Lely and DeLaval look at our farm and it is agreed the layout
> is quite suitable for a robotic milking system. We had been thinking our 180
> cow split calving herd could be milked by two robots, but are now thinking
> that our stocking levels could be higher through improved farm fertility and
> the use of grain that would be bought in to entice them into the milking
> parlour.
>

> So a question we are asking is Œcould 200 cows be milked by two robots in a
> split calving herd?¹ or alternatively Œshould we construct an additional small

> plant to milk the colostrum cows?¹ I had been thinking that a 6 or 8 bale
> herringbone would be very useful for ancillary stock handling procedures. And
> would not mind at all manually milking the colostrum cows as these are the
> cows that we mostly have to treat for mastitis.
>
> Kind regards
> David Yates
> South Auckland NZ

Before buying, read http://www.grazinginfo.com and Dairying > Milking,
Automatic Milking and Once a Day Milking.

70 is the maximum per unit. If you try to milk more your cows will be
standing for longer in the sun messing in the race from about 9 am until
about 11 am or later.

If like the New Zealand Greenfield one, 90% of cows will come in only once a
day on average, so do a costing on paying someone to milk once a day. There
could be someone in your area looking for part time work when their children
are at school. Milking can be done at any time. 9 am is a good time before
it gets too hot in summer and when the pasture has a slightly higher energy
leave than at 5 or 6 am.

Best wishes.

Vaughan Jones
Hamilton
New Zealand
sup...@grazinginfo.com

http://www.grazinginfo.com

[Paley, Martin]

Hi Vaughan,

We are in contact with Mr Yates who will be visiting one of our installations in Australia. I will alert Graham Hardy to your contact as I am now just starting a 2 year contract in Sweden.

At the end of that contract I will return to NZ and contemplate retirement or at least a reduction in active management.

Keep well

Regards

Martin

"This is an e-mail from a DeLaval company. This e-mail is confidential
and may also be privileged. Please delete the email and notify us
immediately if you are not the intended recipient. DeLaval does not
enter into contracts or contractual obligations via electronic mail,
unless otherwise agreed in writing between parties concerned.
Thank you."

[Heritage Farm]

Hi Kendra, Max and Darold.

 

Thank you for your responses.

Our top cows might milk at your average production, but not many. I expect production at about the level of the DairyNZ Greenfield project. And the split calving would help by having half of the herd on reduced milkings per day.

The capital expense of a third robot is daunting at this stage, as the production levels of this farm are not proven to the higher level needed to be profitable for a third robot. [Our production is somewhat constrained by being a certified organic farm]. At this time I feel leaving room to expand at a later date would be prudent. And for now we will continue our planning for two robots to milk 180 cows, with different stages of lactation.

I will keep the option of a small manual milking plant open, as I know that on our farm 90% of treatments we give to the herd are to our colostrum cows. It is something to check out as we visit other farmers during our next six months planning.

 

Regards David Yates

 

---

From: futur...@googlegroups.com [mailto:futur...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Kendra Davis

Sent: Monday, 5 October 2009 10:28 p.m.
To: futur...@googlegroups.com

[Kendra Davis]

Hi again

David your email and Vaughan Jones' email have given me a few more points to raise with the group.  I hope these don't confuse things even more. 

 

It may well be that with time and experience that you may be able to increase the cow numbers by altering your management, only time will tell that.  However, for now you indicate a decision to keep the numbers at 180 cows which is a very wise choice (in my opinion).

 

Vaughan mentioned the option of once-a-day milking.  I think this is often a technology that could be considered as it is very cheap to implement and if you are not happy with it, the cost of changing back to twice-a-day milking is almost non-existent.  Using a Mum to milk cows after she has gotten the kids off to school is a way of tapping into a labour market that has not traditionally been available to the dairy industry.  However, changing to once-a-day assumes that you have a good dairy that does not need upgrading.

 

We priced the cost of a two robot dairy compared to a 18-swing over with automation and came up with a price difference of only $111,000 for the two dairies, assuming both were being installed from scratch - i.e. neither was using existing infrastructure.  Of course the cost will need to be developed for $NZ and both could be installed for cheaper depending on the budget. 

 

Vaughan mentioned long queues of cows.  My answer to this is that any AMS farmer has to accept that cows will behave in certain ways as a response to the management practices in place.  If the cows' behaviour is not suited to our targets etc then it is important to understand what is causing the behaviour to enable us to modify it.  If cows are all coming out of the paddock as a herd at 7am in the morning, allocating more pasture in that night paddock will encourage them to stay there a bit longer and traffic out a bit slower.  Having a split of early and late lactation cows will result in the incentives working differently for the two groups which will result in more distributed movement as well.   Remember though that the management must work for the cows (otherwise they won't do it) and for the people (otherwise it won't be sustainable).

 

With regard to the animal handling facility.  Regardless of whether or not you have a separate milking facility for colostrum cows you will need some form of animal handling facility.  The scale of this will depend largely on the types of management you intend to have.  Make sure you have the flexibility built into the system that you require for your management needs.

 

The technology now exists with AMS drafting gates to draft cows on a whole host of factors, including the current queue length at the dairy.  However if a cow that has milking permission is released to the paddock it will be some time before she returns to the dairy if you turn her out to a fresh break of grass.  Having cows moving around the system more frequently (e.g. with three breaks of pasture per day rather than two) will give you more opportunity to be selective about plucking cows off for milking at the drafting gates.  So it is important that if you layout allows you to have three way grazing that you maintain this option.  It may be that you only use three-way grazing during times when the herd size is peaking or when you want to capture higher milking frequencies for early lactation cows etc. 

 

I hope these points all make sense and don't confuse you even further.  

 

Kind Regards

Kendra Kerrisk (nee Davis)

Senior Scientist

FutureDairy, University of Sydney

Private Mailbag 4003

Narellan, 2567

NSW AUSTRALIA

Mob: 0428 101 372

Dairy: +61 2 4636 6327

ken...@usyd.edu.au

www.futuredairy.com.au

[Juergen Steen]

Dear all,

finally found a few minutes to add a couple of thoughts to this discussion


Milking capacity
following the principle that the only relevant benchmark to describe the
capacity of a robotic milking unit (really any milking unit) is litres of
milk harvested we can create two scenarios
1800 litres a day, 60 cows, 30l per cow, 2.5 milkings per cow
average, a total of 150 milkings @ 12l
1800 litres a day, 100 cows, 18l per cow, 1.5 milkings per cow
average, at total of 150 milkings @ 12: for the robot the same job
I don't want to promote any scenario here, this is just to demonstrate what
impact per cow milk yield has for the number of cows per robotic milking
system. An increasing cow number per robot will have higher requirements
on the cow flow. What will the future hold? Will we see 100 cows doing 23l
on a robot during their spring peak? Why not? Progress is very rapid in
this area.

Milking frequency
that is a new management tool for dairy farmers when they milk with robots.
What is the right milking frequency? There is no easy answer that covers
all aspects. Each cow has her own optimum based on production and stage of
lactation. It seems that heifers and early lactation cows benefit the most
from more than 2 milkings a day. Late lactation cows with low production
seem to cope well with a milking frequency that is under 2 milkings a day.
Most farms I deal with sit between 1.8 and 2.5 milkings a day. Low milking
frequencies are in my experience a risk factor for mastitis, means that the
mastitis management needs to be a bit "sharper". The cow flow can be a
bottleneck. If the cows only come 2x to the dairy each day the milking
frequency can't be higher. This is another example for the importance of a
good cow flow design.

Using a traditional dairy next to robots
That makes sense in 2 cases
The farm is expanding and robotic milking is used to milk more cows
without growing the existing dairy.
To milk collostrum cows and treatment cows separately. We also have very
efficient solutions for milk separation with the robot. It is definitely
a point to raise with the system supplier and weigh up the pros and cons
of different options.
Running a traditional dairy next to a robotic dairy milking the same herd
doesn't make much sense and is not recommended nor required.





best regards,

Jurgen Steen
Manager Dairy Equipment South West Pacific
Lely Australia PTY LTD
48 Mackay Street, Rochester
3561 Victoria, Australia
Phone: +61 354 844000
Fax: +61 354 841 513
Mobile: +61 417 102 303
jst...@lely.com
www.lely.com




Heritage Farm
<heritagefarm@cle
ar.net.nz> To
Sent by: futur...@googlegroups.com
<futuredairy@goog cc
legroups.com>
Subject
[FutureDairy] Stocking Numbers
11/10/2009 01:03
PM


Please respond to
futuredairy@googl
egroups.com

Hi Kendra, Max and Darold.

Thank you for your responses.
Our top cows might milk at your average production, but not many. I expect
production at about the level of the DairyNZ Greenfield project. And the
split calving would help by having half of the herd on reduced milkings per
day.
The capital expense of a third robot is daunting at this stage, as the
production levels of this farm are not proven to the higher level needed to
be profitable for a third robot. [Our production is somewhat constrained by
being a certified organic farm]. At this time I feel leaving room to expand
at a later date would be prudent. And for now we will continue our planning
for two robots to milk 180 cows, with different stages of lactation.
I will keep the option of a small manual milking plant open, as I know that
on our farm 90% of treatments we give to the herd are to our colostrum
cows. It is something to check out as we visit other farmers during our
next six months planning.

Regards David Yates

From: futur...@googlegroups.com [mailto:futur...@googlegroups.com] On
Behalf Of Kendra Davis
Sent: Monday, 5 October 2009 10:28 p.m.
To: futur...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [FutureDairy] Re: Stocking Numbers

Hi David and others
I guess in my opinion the short answer is that 200 cows is too many. This
is getting very close to the limit for three machines if we work on 70-75
cows per machine. However there is never an easy answer and there are a
number of things to consider.

1. 200 cows may be possible for someone who has a lot of experience with

AMS farming and has a very well managed and efficiently operated
system. Particularly if the herd is only going to peak at 200 cows
for a very short period (say 1 month). Also in such a scenario you
would be expecting that there are a mix of stages of lactation
(particularly early and late lactation cows) and these cows are
relatively low producing and could cope with a lower milking
frequency than the average Australian farmer would typically accept.
The late lactation cows could milk at once-a-day and early's at
around 1.8 milkings/day. Assume 45 cows/machine at 1 milking/day, 45
cows/machine at 1.8 milkings/day = 126 milkings/machine/day.

2. Note that the Greenfield project (cows averaging around 3,500 litres

from memory) were successfully operating at up to 90 cows per machine
with lower milking frequencies around 1.3 milkings/cow/day.

3. It is often more appropriate to think of the capacity of the machines

with regard to litres harvested per day or milkings per day rather
than number of cows which is largely dependent on yield per cow and
milking frequency per cow per day. I would suggest that around 150
milkings/day and/or about 2,000 litres/day is about the best you
could expect with a pasture based system. Even these numbers will
likely be a too optimistic until you and your cows have up to about
12 months experience. During the first 12 months I would suggest
about 120 milkings and perhaps around 1800 litres but be more
realistic.

4. Your idea of a purpose built small capacity conventional milk

harvesting system does have some benefits but I think that you would
quickly get sick of the idea of milking cows manually when you have
an AMS milking most of the herd. In this regard you will not capture
one of the greatest lifestyle benefits of AMS (being that your day is
no longer dictated by milking cows twice a day). Also this facility
used in the way that you describe will only take some pressure off
the system (depending on your calving spread) . A much cheaper
animal treatment area could be built in conjunction with the AMS
dairy - depending on your requirement.

5. At Camden we have comfortably milked up to 75 cows/machine but have

still felt that the system is being reasonably well pushed at that
(remember we have a fair amount of experience but our downfall is
that we can only operate with two-way grazing - three way would be an
advantage). We currently have 85 cows per machine in milk (total
herd size of 170) and are trying to maintain 1.8 milkings/cow/day
(split calving) with cows producing around 7,500 litres/year. We
really feel that our machines are truly "over stocked" at the moment
and would not suggest that this is sustainable.

6. I really think that if you do the numbers regarding the cost of

including one more AMS unit compared to building an ancillary milk
harvesting facility there will not be a lot of difference in capital
expense. Have you done these numbers?
I hope that these points have been of some use to you. You will also find
some information at http://groups.google.com.au/group/futuredairy under
"files" with an information sheet on machine capacity. Happy to discuss
this further if this raises more points of discussion with you.

|----------------------+-----------------------------------+ -------------------+-|

|Kind Regards | | | | |
| | | | | |
|Kendra | | | | |
| | | | | |
|Dr Kendra Kerrisk | | | | |

|----------------------+-----------------------------------+ -------------------+-|
| FutureDairy | Faculty of
| AMS Research Leader | Veterinary Science
| www.futuredairy.com.a| The University of
| u | Sydney
|----------------------+

[Max Jelbart]

Hi Juergen,

There a lot of discussion about cow flow, but none on economics.

1. What is the typical investment per robot including the changes
required to sheds, lanes, feeding systems etc in total $$? I guess some of
the infrastructure costs incurred with the 1st robot installed are not
repeated for 2nd, 3rd etc?

2. What is the annual operating cost including servicing, breakdowns
etc?

3. I understand Warrens have replaced their units this year so does
this give us an operating life of about 7 years? Was there a salvage value >
refurbish > resold??

Based on your numbers below, the robot should harvest a theoretical 667,000
lts/year, so let's reduce this by 15% because nothing works to the optimal
all the time, and call it 550,000 lts/year X 7 years = 3,850,000 lifetime
litres.

4. When we add 1,2 and 3, we can get a gross lifetime operating cost
/3.85m lts = cost/lt.

5. From this we can deduct some labour costs but these will vary
depending on the existing system but the answer to Q4 will put us in the
position to consider the benefits of a robot from a financial view point.

Thank you.
Cheers
Max jelbart

[Vaughan Jones]

Thanks Kendra for the good points.

What were the actual costs for each system please and which companies
quoting them?

If company names are confidential, no problem.

> ken...@usyd.edu.au <mailto:ken...@usyd.edu.au>
> www.futuredairy.com.au

Best wishes.

Vaughan Jones
International Agricultural Consultant
Hamilton
New Zealand
http://www.grazinginfo.com

[Kendra Davis]

Regarding the prices that I mentioned in a previous discussion "We

priced the cost of a two robot dairy compared to a 18-swing over with
automation and came up with a price difference of only $111,000 for the
two dairies, assuming both were being installed from scratch - i.e.
neither was using existing infrastructure. Of course the cost will need
to be developed for $NZ and both could be installed for cheaper
depending on the budget."

Vaughan has asked what the actual prices were and which company quoted
them.

The two dairies were priced at:

Conventional milking system
Plant & equipment installed $292,806 (ex GST) $322,087 (incl
GST)
Shed, concrete, yarding etc $455,600 (ex GST) $501,160 (incl
GST)
Total ($) $748,406 (ex GST)
$823,247 (incl GST)
Ave MS Capital Invested $ /cow/year $312

Automatic milking system
Plant & equipment installed $594,621 (ex GST) $654,083 (incl
GST)
Shed, concrete, yarding etc $265,000 (ex GST) $291,500(incl
GST)
Total ($) $859,621 (ex GST)
$945,583 (incl GST)
Ave MS Capital Invested $ /cow/year $358

For both installations above the "plant and equipment installed"
included milk vat, cooling system, auto cleaning, plant and equipment
installed
The Average milking system (MS) capital invested/cow/year was calculated
by dividing the total capital cost by the specified herd size and then
dividing by the effective life of the MS used (15 years for CMS and 15
years for AMS in this instance).

The conventional milking system incorporates technologies such as
automatic cup removers, electronic feeders and cleaning systems. It was
deemed that this was most appropriate as a comparison with automatic
milking systems.

Shed costs were provided by an industry consultative group which
included dairy shed designers and installers as well as milking
machinery sellers for both the AMS (DeLaval) and CMS. The sheds
themselves were neither extremely extravagant nor excessively basic.
With the AMS, a more basic dairy could be designed as the area that the
AMS takes up in the shed is quite small. It is interesting to note that
with the CMS about 60% of the cost is in the shed, concrete and yarding
whereas with the AMS about 60% was with the plant and equipment
installed.

Of course it is very important that people get their own prices, the
cost of the technology will change and also the current exchange rate
will likely impact the cost of the installation considerably. Prices
may be more competitive when castings are received from a number of
suppliers and also some people will save considerable amounts of money
by pouring their own concrete or doing some of the construction
themselves etc. Also the design of the shed will impact on the length
of the milk lines etc so the costs reported above are an indication but
will vary between installations.

I hope this info is useful.

Kind Regards

Kendra

[Juergen Steen]

Dear Max,

please find answers to your questions added to your e-mail below,

best regards,

Jurgen Steen
Manager Dairy Equipment South West Pacific
Lely Australia PTY LTD
48 Mackay Street, Rochester
3561 Victoria, Australia
Phone: +61 354 844000
Fax: +61 354 841 513
Mobile: +61 417 102 303
jst...@lely.com
www.lely.com

Max Jelbart
<maxw...@tpg.com
.au> To

Sent by: <futur...@googlegroups.com>
<futuredairy@goog cc
legroups.com>
Subject

[FutureDairy] Re: Stocking Numbers
17/10/2009 10:31
AM

Please respond to
futuredairy@googl
egroups.com

Hi Juergen,

There a lot of discussion about cow flow, but none on economics.

1. What is the typical investment per robot including the changes
required to sheds, lanes, feeding systems etc in total $$? I guess some of
the infrastructure costs incurred with the 1st robot installed are not
repeated for 2nd, 3rd etc?

The pricing for each robot does vary obviously depending on the number of
robots for the project, the level of equipment and the chosen options. The
exchange rate against the Euro alone can vary the pricing by more than 10%.
Yes there are economies of scale.

A typical grazing set up of our Lely Astronaut A3 Next (our latest and most
sophisticated model) including all required systems components, animal
scales, heat detection, integrated grazing control, mastitis detection etc
would cost today between $ 230,000 to 270,000 per machine.

Other costs like costs for shed, yards effluent system etc are not
included. Robots typically have a much smaller footprint. They need smaller
yard, less water and effluent, don't need wide lanes etc. Some of our
customers have found that taking this into account robots can be even
cheaper to buy than a well equipped standard dairy. Keep in mind that
standard milking equipment has increased in price considerably in the last
few years.

2. What is the annual operating cost including servicing,
breakdowns
etc?

I would suggest to use a common approach for the estimation of machinery
servicing costs: Use 2.5-3.5 % of initial investment as a estimated
annual average for spare parts, consumables, preventive maintenance and
break downs. It would be too complicated to discuss the available service
arrangements in detail here.

You can assume that energy, water and detergent consumption is on par with
traditional milking systems. For our counterparts in Europe the system
efficiency in this area is very important. Again this subject alone is
worth a separate discussion.

3. I understand Warrens have replaced their units this year so
does
this give us an operating life of about 7 years?

I can't give a figure for the operating life. Our first robots from 1993
are still in operation.

The durability of a robotic milking system is a very important question to
establish the cost of ownership. "Is the robotic arm still ok after 5-7
years? What about vacuum pumps, teat detection and other components?" You
will understand that answering all theses questions are specific for the
different robot designs and I can't go into too much detail in this forum.

Was there a salvage value >
refurbish > resold??

For further reading regarding second hand robots go to
http://www.lely.com/en/taurus/introduction.jsp

Based on your numbers below, the robot should harvest a theoretical 667,000
lts/year, so let's reduce this by 15% because nothing works to the optimal
all the time, and call it 550,000 lts/year X 7 years = 3,850,000 lifetime
litres.

using 15 years it would be 8,250,000 lts, 20 years would be 11,000,000 lts
The result of this calculation will be very sensitive to what is used here.

4. When we add 1,2 and 3, we can get a gross lifetime operating
cost
/3.85m lts = cost/lt.

5. From this we can deduct some labour costs but these will vary
depending on the existing system but the answer to Q4 will put us in the
position to consider the benefits of a robot from a financial view point.

Orher points to consider:
If we learn to harvest 10% more per robot we will at the same time
reduce the cost per litre by 10%. I see a lot of scope in this area
Can robots help to reduce mastitis?
What is the value of a sophisticated mastitis detection system?
What is the value of a sophisticated heat detection system?
What is the value of an individual feeding system?
What is the value of reduced stress levels for the cows?
What is the value of less lameness per cow?
What is the value of the herd management system combining it all helping
farms with decision making?
Is there scope to improve grass intake by using ABC grazing? We know
from the European barn systems that you can improve per cow intake by
offering fresh grass more often. (5-7%) Would this effect apply if we
graze cows 3x a day?
and last but not least
What is the value of a milking system that people enjoy without beeing
physically demanding, where generation x and y will be prepared to milk
cows?