Opinions of Robots in Dairy Farming

[The Agrarian]

One man spends between ten and fifteen minutes walking through the cows cleaning 200 cubicles with hand scraper here, morning and evening. That would also include picking up some heats, metritis etc. 30 minutes once a week tops up bedding at the cubicle heads with a handler mounted dispenser.

 

[ollie989898]

Rubbish. A milking robot is dealing with a live beast that moves and wriggles at will and not a piece of steel to be welded
A robot will not match the speed of a human because it cannot react fast enough

You are wrong. The robot can't do it fast enough today, because they are using pneumatics and hydraulics in milking technology today.

These technologies are not used in manufacturing because they are too slow and imprecise. They use digitally controlled stepper motors instead, where fractions of a degree of movement can be replicated precisely very easily, and with speed as motors can brake using their own torque. This is the future of robot milking only the manufacturers haven't developed it yet.

A robot can fly a space craft or pilot a rover on a remote planet. Optical technology and laser measurement is now so fast and precise, attaching to an udder is really childs play.

What is so special about an udder? It's soft and can move, it's not made of glass.

A computer can react far faster than any human, they have no 'thinking time'.

In the next 100 years machines will remove a lot of labour from virtually every industry.

 

[The Agrarian]

You need to spend a few years watching all the various scenarios of robotic attachment to udders unfold. One of the big reasons for pneumatics was that the arm would yield when stepped or lay on, without wrecking anything.

 

[Scarltt3Drag0n]

Another question I hope could be answered is whether the uses of robotics could stem the decline in dairy farming?

 

[lazy farmer]

Another question I hope could be answered is whether the uses of robotics could stem the decline in dairy farming?

What decline?

 

[kp_n_plghng]

A lot of robot herds may well have a high labour requirement but no one is having to milk cows three times a day. They fetch cows about, trim feet, do a bit of AI and then do the feeding and beding up from the comfort of a seat. It isn't that difficult to find people who will sit on a seat.

Lots of people enjoy the consistency a job like milking brings. They always know when they'll start and finish. Conditions can vary massively but in modern facilities milking can be an enjoyable job for many.

 

[Scarltt3Drag0n]

What decline?

The steady decline in all dairy production from November 2008 and November this year in England and Wales, in which the number dropped from 12,000 in 08 to just over 9,000. Whilst there is a number of fluctuations over that period of the time, the producers number is gradually decreasing.

So could the use of robotics in dairy farming, help stem this gradual decline?

 

[Turboman]

The steady decline in all dairy production from November 2008 and November this year in England and Wales, in which the number dropped from 12,000 in 08 to just over 9,000. Whilst there is a number of fluctuations over that period of the time, the producers number is gradually decreasing.

So could the use of robotics in dairy farming, help stem this gradual decline?

A lot of the decline is down to profitability, Will robots dramatically improve profitability ? I dont think so.

 

[The Agrarian]

Decline is about profitability, yes, but not about foreclosures so much as a creeping deterrent to new generations born onto farms. A lot just aren't interested, and for some that might be, they still realise that they could potentially get a more consistently better paying job, for less hours, outside the farm. Most rationalisation is through natural retirements, in Northern Ireland at least. No, robots won't improve profitability. But it does structure cost in a more appropriate manner. The cost is transparent, whereas the costs borne by a great many family farms are taken out of their hide, and not presented on paper, as some tend to seek an early grave.

 

[lazy farmer]

Decline is about profitability, yes, but not about foreclosures so much as a creeping deterrent to new generations born onto farms. A lot just aren't interested, and for some that might be, they still realise that they could potentially get a more consistently better paying job, for less hours, outside the farm. Most rationalisation is through natural retirements, in Northern Ireland at least. No, robots won't improve profitability. But it does structure cost in a more appropriate manner. The cost is transparent, whereas the costs borne by a great many family farms are taken out of their hide, and not presented on paper, as some tend to seek an early grave.

Production hasn’t declined.

 

[Adam@Rumen]

The steady decline in all dairy production from November 2008 and November this year in England and Wales, in which the number dropped from 12,000 in 08 to just over 9,000. Whilst there is a number of fluctuations over that period of the time, the producers number is gradually decreasing.

So could the use of robotics in dairy farming, help stem this gradual decline?

Check the average herd size...

 

[pappuller]

Production hasn’t declined.

Think the op meant producer no's have declined

 

[Scarltt3Drag0n]

Check the average herd size...

Average herd size might be increasing, but it does not mean that there are more dairy farms, perhaps more animals are entering the current farms. But as a whole are there more people turning towards jobs in dairy farming.

 

[Adam@Rumen]

Less farms with each farm having more cows - there has been an increase in amount of UK dairy cows since 2008 (the date you gave).

I think this trend will continue.

 

[The Agrarian]

Production hasn’t declined.

.

I didn't say it had.

I don't think the industry is in decline as such. Constant rationalisation, which is a one way street because the industry isn't very open to new entrants.

 

[lazy farmer]

.

I didn't say it had.

I don't think the industry is in decline as such. Constant rationalisation, which is a one way street because the industry isn't very open to new entrants.

Apologies I meant to reply to the OP s latest post. I agree with your synopsis

 

[Llmmm]

Hi, I am a student in my final year at the University of South Wales, and for my final year project, I want to understand the usage of robots in dairy farming in the UK.

Can anyone offer their opinions as to using them oppose to parlours and vice versa and whether robots are sustainable?

Robots only work where cows are indoors all the time.They can be made to work in grazing but at the expense of milk quantity and quality.Scc will be high as cows from what ive seen.Those grazing graze very tight a timer opens paddock fence all cows come put of paddock only problem is robot can only milk one cow at a time

 

[pappuller]

Robots only work where cows are indoors all the time.They can be made to work in grazing but at the expense of milk quantity and quality.Scc will be high as cows from what ive seen.Those grazing graze very tight a timer opens paddock fence all cows come put of paddock only problem is robot can only milk one cow at a time

Do you have 1st hand experience of milking cows with robots ?

 

[nonemouse]

Robots only work where cows are indoors all the time.They can be made to work in grazing but at the expense of milk quantity and quality.Scc will be high as cows from what ive seen.Those grazing graze very tight a timer opens paddock fence all cows come put of paddock only problem is robot can only milk one cow at a time

What a load of BULLOCKS

 

[Llmmm]

Yes worked with them seen many farms who threw them seen cows queing up to be milked cows being starved so they will leave paddock to go to robot when fence opens.Cows not being milked regularly will have elevated scc ive seen all robot grazing farms with very high scc.they are a great job if cows indoors