Wednesday, 16 May 2012 13:41

Robotic rotary dairy in Oz

Written by 

The revolutionary robotic rotary dairy is now a reality with the world's first commercial installation in operation at Gala, the dairy farm operated by the Dornauf family in northern Tasmania.

Marketed under the AMR the new milking system was developed collaboratively by Swedish dairy equipment company DeLaval and the Sydney-based FutureDairy team.

The Dornauf family have been milking with the AMR since February this year, and are delighted with the results.

"It is a different approach, not just to milking cows, but the farming system in general," says Nick Dornauf who runs the farm with his partner Rebekah Tyler.

The Dornauf's AMR is currently milking 250 cows but has the capacity to milk up to 600 cows. The plan is to further develop the property and expand the herd to capacity over the coming years.

The Dornauf's AMR has a 24-unit internal, herringbone rotary platform. Milking tasks are performed by five robots: two for udder preparation, two for cup attachment and one for teat disinfection after milking.

Cows wear electronic collars which are recognised by the robots, smart gates, automatic feeders and the herd management software, Delpro, giving the Dornauf's the ability to manage many of the farm operations from the computer.

Richard Alderton, Regional President, DeLaval Oceania, says the company has worked closely with the Australian dairy industry to develop the AMR.

"We collaborated with the FutureDairy team to design an automatic milking system suited to Australian conditions, particularly larger herds within a pasture feedbase," Alderton says.

However the system is flexible enough to operate in a variety of dairy systems including free stalls and loose housing that are typical of overseas dairy operations.

The reasons the Dornaufs invested in the AMR included the ability to retain labour, flexibility of farm management, improved stimulation, freeing up time from milking to focus on farm management and improved lifestyle.

While the Dornaufs are still getting used to this new way of farming, they are already seeing some of the benefits.

"I jump out of bed in the morning. It's really exciting to be adopting new technology and challenging the paradigms for dairy farming. There's lots of intellectual stimulation for me," Nick Dornauf says.

More like this

Keeping a watch on dairy farms

OPINION: Dairy farmers are under increasing pressure to safeguard their livestock, equipment and operations from a range of security threats.

Inconvenient truth

OPINION: You would've missed this one if you rely on mainstream media for your news, but your old mate reckons credit should go where credit's due: Emissions by dairy cattle decreased by 1.6% according to the latest NZ Greenhouse Gas Inventory report.

Taranaki dairy farms saved by $10/kgMS payout

Only this season’s $10/kgMS bumper payout has saved some dairy farms along the Taranaki coast from absolute disaster due to the present drought – dubbed as one of the worst ever for some.

Featured

LIC Space folds for good

Farmer co-operative LIC has closed its satellite-backed pasture measurement platform – Space.

Editorial: Time for common sense

OPINION: The case of four Canterbury high country stations facing costly and complex consent hearing processes highlights the dilemma facing the farming sector as the country transitions into a replacement for the Resource Management Act (RMA).

National

DairyNZ Farmers Forum underway

Over 300 farmers and rural professionals have gathered in Hamilton for the first DairyNZ Farmers Forum for this year.

Machinery & Products

Shearing legend hooked on CanAm

Sir David Fagan, world-renowned competitive sheep shearer with 642 shearing titles worldwide and a knighthood to his name, now runs…

50 years of tractor pull

This year, the Fieldays Tractor Pull, in association with PTS Logistics, mark a major milestone – 50 years of crowd-thrilling…

The Wrangler's birthday bash

It's the Wrangler Limited’s 30th birthday and to celebrate the milestone a prototype of the E Series Wrangler - a…

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Free speech

OPINION: The Free Speech Union is taking this one too far.

Drug survey

OPINION: New national data from The Drug Detection Agency (TDDA), a leading workplace drug tester, shows methamphetamine (meth) use is…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter