The capabilities of today’s automated milking systems to provide an ideal milking for an individual cow make them an excellent tool to enable those more senior members of the herd to meet their genetic potential. Here are four reasons milking robots are a great option for older cows.

Semiautomated milking technology captured the attention of dairy producers awarding this year’s Nexus Innovation Awards. The new technology from GEA improves upon and brings the fully automated teat preparation common in box-style milking robots to parallel parlors.

The U.S. dairy industry has arrived at its position of global strength by producing more milk with the same number of cows across a fraction of the farms. It did so not by choosing between scale and efficiency, but by pursuing both.

Clean, well-maintained equipment doesn’t just look better but performs better, lasts longer and costs less over time.

Longevity in your milking system is about more than just buying a quality product. How you manage your dairy along the way is going to determine how long your system lasts.

The benefits to automated milking systems are well documented when referenced to cow welfare, production potential and labor optimization. Although there are many facets to the optimization of these systems, one of the most undervalued is the parameters surrounding individual milking events and what draws the cows to the robot.

They say football is won and lost in the trenches with fundamentals like blocking and tackling. The fundamentals of automated milking systems are monitoring performance and completing maintenance.

Whether it’s a five-man double-50, a small flat barn or a rotary, night shifts consistently show the highest deviation from standard operating procedures (SOPs). But the real question is, why? And more importantly, what can we do about it?