Published: May 30, 2008 04:36 pm            

Robotics makes dairy operation a little easier

Originally published in the May 30, 2008, print edition.

Fifteen months and so far it’s working OK. That’s how McLeod County dairy farmer Del Benjamin, describes his DeLaval Voluntary Milking System robotic unit.

Maintaining a consistent and good labor supply was what piqued his interest in going robotic.

At 2 p.m. the robotic unit had just finished milking one of his Holsteins and was now back flushing all four teat cups, washing the floor, cleaning the robot arm, opening the exit-door for the just-milked cow to depart while also opening the entry-door for the next cow to enter. Once in the stall, a butt panel gently moved up against the cow’s hind end.

Next a red laser beam directed a miniaturized camera, which in turn directed a warm-water wash and pre-strip of each teat and then guided and positioned each teat cup for attachment to the proper teat and eureka, the next cow was quietly and gently being milked.

That’s the process, cow after cow, until all 62 cows in the lineup have been milked. Milk weights of each cow are electronically recorded, for each milking. Within a given 24-hour period, the system has permitted light producers to be milked twice, but heavy, early lactation producers are fed and milked up to five times.

Voluntary milking is precisely what these new robotic systems provide. “In essence the cow sets her own agenda for when she wants to be milked and how often. And that same agenda also determines how often she gets access to the total mixed ration so a heavy producer getting milked five times also gets access to the feed table five times,” Benjamin said.

Though he doesn’t yet know with only 15 months experience, he expects more lactations and more milk per lactation. “We’ve had some cows with some pretty spectacular yields. Some bumped up eight to 10 pounds more milk per day,” he said. Also in this “stress-free” environment he has already noticed fewer health problems.

It was a “quick learn” for the cows in this new atmosphere partly because the robot unit went into a barn built three years previously and specially laid out for the advent of a robotic unit. The milk unit has a molasses lick-block for bait.

Robotic units have remarkable flexibility. For example, should a quarter go blind (a non-milking quarter), he notes that in the computer and the robotic unit then ignores that particular quarter each time the cow comes through the unit. It can even detect blood in the milk and divert that aside.

“The electronics of the 21st century are pretty amazing,” Benjamin said. Cows get milked slower and more gently by robotics than when manually working cows through a milking parlor.

The system also makes note of any “failed milkings,” meaning a disruption in the milking process for whatever reason. That, of course, tells the operator to check things out.

“Once it was simply a dirty camera lens so it couldn’t see to initiate the milking process. The wash system automatically cleans the camera lens but this time it must have gotten too dirty so I used a tooth brush and soapy water.”

Benjamin’s DeLaval VMS unit cost about $170,000 and came with a one-year warranty. His is the only DeLaval unit currently operating in the state but a flurry of activity apparently is under way within Minnesota. Tom Anderson, Riverland Farm Business Management, reports 13 new installations under way in southeast Minnesota.

More free time and more flexible time are obvious benefits of going robotic. This doesn’t mean you can be a “no show” in the parlor but it does mean that if you check out at 6:30 p.m. and don’t want to be back until 6:30 a.m. you can do just that.

Any failed milking triggers a phone call, regardless the time. “Yes, there have been a few middle of the night phone calls but nothing serious to be an aggravation. Most typically, a cow has managed to step on one of the teat cup hoses pulling the teat cup off. The robot arm goes back in and holds the hose up as each quarter is milked but sometimes a cow catches a hose anyway. You just deal with it and keep going.”

His system is set up so that if a teat cup is pulled off, the unit will automatically reattach the teat cup two times, unless that quarter has already achieved 70 percent of its expected yield for that milking.

His system is set up as a “milk first” system before getting access to the TMR feed table. So the daily routine is milking, eating, resting. After resting they can’t get back to the feed bunk until they get to the sort gate, which admits them to the milk line.

Expected milk yield, days into lactation, and younger cows versus older cows are factors plugged into the computer to determine how many milking, and how many access times to feeder, each 24 hours.

Since starting dairy farming 23 years ago, Benjamin laughed when noting he’s worked his way through seven different milking systems, starting with stanchions and bucket milkers.

He and wife, Mary, have two sons, Daniel, 20, enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, and Grant, 18, farming with Dad but likely to go into diesel school mechanics this fall. They also have one hired hand.

“With neither son likely to farm, robotics are keeping me in the milking business. Yes, I can say that robotic milking has made both my dairy operation and my farming easier,” he said.

        

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