DeLaval Milking Decreases Labor Expenses
Brief Summary:
The company has integrated the DeLaval System to milk cows. The use of this system decreases labor expenses while increasing productivity. The system speeds the milking process while taking data of the each cow that voluntarily enters the system.
- Mason Dixon Farms has installed 10 robots to milk 500 of its 2,100 cows. The DeLaval Voluntary Milking System--called "voluntary" because cows return to the system on their own--has reduced the farm's labor costs by 75% and raised milk production by 15%, says Waybright, president of the farm. He plans to buy 30 more robots to milk the rest of the herd.
- Robotic milking systems are being used increasingly by U.S. farmers to cut labor costs and improve efficiency. The systems, already popular in Europe and Canada, eliminate the need for farm workers to round up the animals, connect them to equipment, and manually track milking times and yield.
- Robotic milking takes eight minutes, a minute or two less than with milking systems that require manual help.
- When a cow enters the milking stall, the robot "recognizes" the cow by a transponder in her collar. Data about the cow, including the last time she was milked and her expected yield, is uploaded to the robot's Linux-based interface from a database running on a Windows PC.
- Robotic milking systems are just beginning to show up on U.S. dairy farms, in part because strict federal and state guidelines must be met before the systems can be sold. DeLaval's VMS has been approved in New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont, and approval is expected this year in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, according to the company.
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