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http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/03/01/robotic.milking.ap/index.html

<http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/03/01/robotic.milking.ap/index.html>

 

 

Robots do the milking at some U.S. farms

 

 

BROGUE, Pennsylvania (AP) --With the help of robots and a little training,

150 cows on the H.E. Heindel & Sons dairy farm are practically milking

themselves.

 

One of seven farms in the country that are experimenting with robotic

milking systems, Heindel & Sons has trained most of its cows to walk up to a

milking station and spend a few minutes there munching grain while the

robot's quietly moving parts prod at the animal's udder.

 

A laser locates the cow's nipples, which are cleaned by rollers coated with

disinfectant before being milked by long, white suction tubes on the unit's

" milking claw. " Vacuum-activated rubber rings at the end of each tube

massage the nipple, prompting the cow to release its milk.

 

The fluid is deposited into aluminum refrigeration tanks.

 

" We're no longer doing things just because that's the way grandpa did it, "

said Alan Bair, a dairy industry advocate working for Pennsylvania State

University and the state Department of Agriculture.

 

The technology is being billed as a tool that may save small family-owned

dairies beleaguered by long hours and slim profit margins.

 

While many dairy farms have had computerized milking operations for a decade

or so, a farmhand is still needed to herd the cows and to guide and clean

the machinery. The milking robot guides itself, largely cleans itself, and

contacts a farmhand's cell phone if it detects a mechanical problem.

 

Robotic milking first showed up 10 years ago on a Dutch farm. Its first

appearance in North America was on a Canadian farm in 1998.

 

About 18 months ago, a farm in Wisconsin became the first in the United

States to get a milking robot.

 

Since then, six more farms -- three each in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania --

have purchased robots for tryouts. The machines were bought from Lely, a

Dutch company, and Bou-Matic, of Madison, Wisconsin.

 

At Heindel & Sons, in the Susquehanna River Valley near the Maryland border,

farm general manager Jeff Heindel said he paid about $640,000 for four of

the robotic units, each capable of milking about 60 cows a day. He invested

another $1 million in a new barn to house about 250 cows and the robots.

 

BM_1

 

Boosting profits

 

 

Heindel said he was seeking to boost profits, and he decided to try out the

new technology instead of quadrupling the size of his herd.

 

With the robots, Heindel said he is seeing 10 to 15 percent more milk

production and paying two fewer workers. The robots allow each cow to milk

as many as three times a day, compared with twice a day with the farmhands

doing the milking.

 

One of Pennsylvania's largest farms, the eighth-generation Mason Dixon Farms

in Gettysburg, is milking 30 of its 2,000 cows on a single robotic unit

installed two months ago on a trial basis.

 

Doyle Waybright, a Mason Dixon manager, said if the trial works out he may

buy 40 or so additional robots to handle all the cows.

 

Training the cows to use the robot -- which is about the size of a golf cart

-- takes about a week, Heindel said. While the cow is lured by the grain, it

also needs to learn that the process relieves its udder pressure, he said.

 

To regulate the milking schedule and screen for signs of disease, the

computer logs data from a computer chip in each cow's collar.

 

Not all cows can be milked on the robotic system. Some are too " hardheaded, "

said Roger Burks, a 17-year farmhand for the Heindels. Others have skewed

nipples that the milking claw can't negotiate, or are older, more sensitive

animals that could be upset by the change.

 

Final approval of robotic milking by the Food and Drug Administration next

year looks likely, said Jim Dell, the state's chief of milk sanitation. So

far, milk gathered by the system is meeting quality standards, he said.

 

 

 

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