June 14, 2011

New Zealand's farm uses robot milking system

A NZD1 million (US$817,700) robotic milking system presented at the National Agricultural Fieldays this week is currently used on a Waikato farm.

John Fisher, former deputy chairman of Waikato Regional Council, and his wife Margaret had Cambridge firm Professional Farm Services install four robotic DeLaval milking machines on their Parallel Rd farm, near Cambridge, in time for this dairy season which started this month.

It is the first such commercial installation in the Waikato and follows five years of research by the Fishers.

The installation has required a rethink of the Fisher farm.

No-one is required to milk the cows twice a day, as the laser guided robots do that, giving Fisher and his manager time to concentrate on other jobs.

Voluntary milked cows are more relaxed than their sisters who are herded to the shed twice a day, and the Fishers hope that will deliver efficiencies when it comes to replacement cows.

"It is 20% per year at the moment and I hope to get it down to 15%," Fisher said.

DeLaval, whose New Zealand headquarters is in Hamilton, will demonstrate the Automatic Milking System, as well as a segment of a rotary version, on sites D6 and D8 at Fieldays which starts at the Mystery Creek Events Centre today (Jun 15).