Dairy farmers areincreasingly turningto robots to increase milk production, according to a new study.
The robots can make the tenuous farming business profitable for small farmers and increase income for large companies.
It’s part of a growing wave of automation in the agricultural industry.
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Robots also let cows be milked as often as they would like.
Allowing cows this choice can increase milk production per cow, Darr said.
Farms also get real-time information on milk volume, quality, and components when using a robotic system.
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Overall,the number of dairy farms is shrinking.
In 1970, America had 650,000 dairy farms with 12 million dairy cows.
In 2017, there were 40,200 dairy farms with 9.4 million dairy cows.
New tech is boosting robot milkers.
The company claims the new system ensures minimized system downtime, improved serviceability, and lower maintenance cost.
“Production generally goes up a bit because there are more milkings a day.
The cows are happy.
The robot runs 24h a day, and somebody gets the job of answering when it calls.”
In addition to milking, robots feed cows and calves and administer vaccines.
Other automated systems sort animals into pens, analyze milk production, and clean enclosures.
Birds are sensitive to the color green.
One problem is that these tech advances often rely onbroadband internet, which many rural areas lack.
“Without fiber-optic broadband connectivity, the benefits of smart technology cannot be leveraged,” Pinto said.
