Robot milkers: 'Golden opportunity'

Scepticism over the ability of robotic milkers to do their job is melting fast with more dairy farmers now looking at automatic milking machines as they invest in new facilities.

That view was given this week by Bas Van Santen, a consultant at Dairy Group, speaking at an Dairy Co open day in Dumfries. Van Santen said there were many reasons why those who were originally sceptical about the abilities of machines were now changing their minds.

Not least of these was the shortage of skilled labour, with many Eastern Europeans who have filled the milking gap in the past decade now returning home.

Van Santen said another cause for moving to robotic milking occurred when one generation retired and the next generation were unwilling to commit to the twice or even thrice daily parlour milking.

There was also the bonus of automatic milking machines allowed existing labour more time to carry out husbandry tasks that are occasionally missed, he said.

But beyond these reasons, there was the reality that more and more dairy farmers realised that robotic milking machines were reliable, and often produced better milk yields, he added. "People now realise they are doing a job. If those machines that were put in years ago were not reliable they would not be there now still working."

Despite the recent surge in interest in robotic milkers in the UK, Van Santen pointed out that this country still lagged behind others in Europe.

Three-quarters of the milk produced in Denmark now comes via automatic milking machines and half the milk produced in Holland comes the same way. In the UK, it is estimated that only about one quarter of all dairy cows are milked by automatic machinery.

Some milk producers are now hedging their bets with a percentage of their herd going through the traditional parlour and the rest heading to the automatic milking unit.

In such cases, Van Santen said it was important cows were not moved from one system to another.

Some producers use the automatic milker for their high yielders and then move them back into the parlour later in their lactation. Such a change can cause distress and should be avoided, he advised.

For those producers considering change to their buildings, his advice was that it is a "golden opportunity" to include in any changes the option for automatic milking in the future, as he was sure the move towards the process was inevitable.

Van Santen also expressed his concern that some producers using automatic milkers with a flushing option believed that this would prevent mastitis in the herd. "It may well stop any spread of the disease but it will not stop mastitis in a herd," he warned.