Possibly the biggest thief of resting time for dairy cows is waiting to be milked

Automated milking systems are a substantial investment, but in return, many benefits can be gained from this style of dairy herd management

Benefits of robotic milking systems often include lower labor needs, calmer cows, and greater milking frequency and yield

When we started milking in our robotic milking facility, we were fetching cows that hadn’t come up to milk on their own seven to eight times per day

It can be so easy to get wrapped up caring for the “problem cows,” but our average animals also deserve attention and some true appreciation

When it comes to milk quality, there are details I can see now that I couldn’t before we had our voluntary milking system

Milking in both our parlor and with the robots provided some benefits, but certain costs recently led us back to milking exclusively with one system

Farm help is on the decline in our area and across the country, and it is a driving force for why some farms are choosing robotics

Many factors contribute to positive results when managing cows in an automated milking system

With tight labor markets and constantly improving technology, there has been an exponential adoption of automated milking systems (AMS) throughout North America

The advancements in dairying the past few decades have been impressive, and with technology, the changes will keep coming faster

“We don’t have robot cows and nonrobot cows,” Cornell’s Paul Virkler said as way of introducing his comments during the November 17 Hoard’s Dairyman DairyLivestream. “Cows...

While automated milking systems sound appealing in many aspects, it takes careful consideration to determine if robotics are the right fit for a dairy

It can be difficult to let a building sit idle that has plenty of useful life yet. For farms looking to make the switch to robotic milking, a barn retrofit might be possible, but a few questions must...

We have been blessed with gorgeous fall weather in Oregon the last couple of weeks

“We have to ask for practical use, is it helpful? Does the farmer know more after consulting the system than he or she did before? Of course, we want perfect sensor systems, but we have to use the...

As many of you know, we switched to a robotic milking system last November. When we made the change, we had a pretty good idea of how things would go initially

Automatic milking systems continue to grow in popularity as they provide benefits in improved cow health and more behavioral freedom, detailed Trevor DeVries of the University of Guelph

The number of daily visits a cow makes to an automated milking system has a notable impact on overall milk production

We have been milking with robots for three months now. The months of construction as well as the retraining of cows were both stressful and labor intensive