Robotic Rotary Milking: Inside a $6M Investment Paying Off Faster Than Expected
The Dairy ProQ robotic rotary, the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, has proven to be an impressive addition for Victorian farmers Paul and Marsha Smith.
The focus of the new developments is primarily on the digitalisation and networking of conventional solutions.
GEA says the new products will be launched in New Zealand after learning from test farms.
GEA announced details of the new DairyMilk M6750 milking control unit for the first time. Connected to the GEA DairyNet herd management system, it offers comprehensive digital services in real time and via remote access. GEA’s new rotary milking parlour – the DairyRotor T8600 – will also be equipped with this new generation of milking control units.
The company says it will thus be the first conventional GEA milking system with cross-system networking.
In developing the new solutions for conventional milking, GEA says it has also focused on improving comfort for cows and operators. Service and installation will be faster and easier in the future, it says.
Optimised supply chains also significantly reduce packaging resources and waste on site.
Design, handling and configuration options are based on the specific needs and wishes of dairy farms worldwide. The entire product development process was guided by an extensive customer survey that GEA conducted in various countries in advance.
New Rotary Milking Parlour
GEA also announced a new milking rotary parlour at EuroTier with the new DairyRotor T8600. This new outdoor milker will be equipped with the future generation of DairyMilk M6750 milking control units. By connecting to GEA DairyNet, it will be the first conventional GEA milking system whose components and processes are digitally networked across the board.
This enables extensive services in real time and via remote access. Daily system maintenance and minor servicing can also be carried out on the new GEA DairyRotor T8600 during milking without interrupting the process. The modernised, modular design of the milking system and its components means that farms can easily benefit from future software and hardware upgrades. The modular design is also said to significantly increases installation and maintenance convenience for dealers and service technicians.
The company says the new GEA DairyRotor T8600 is a flexible all-rounder with 28 to 120 milking places and is suitable for any farm. It can be used for farms worldwide with both barn and pasture-based system. A “second round” function allows individual animals on the carousel to be checked again, while the ongoing milking process for the entire herd proceeds uninterrupted. Depending on the layout of the installation, the T8600 also offers a comprehensive equipment package for economical one-person-milking. The entrance area, which can be adjusted according to cow size, and the slim milking stall design are said to have a positive effect on animal comfort and a safe, quick change of animals. GEA has also made the entire supply chain more sustainable for the DairyRotor T8600: Pre-assembled packages include all necessary components for each milking stall.
This reduces installation times, as well as packaging resources and waste on site. The new GEA DairyRotor T8600 will initially be available in the European market from the first quarter of 2024.
In Full Control
At Eurotier, GEA presented the DairyMilk M6750, a new generation of control units for conventional milking.
Thanks to a comprehensive network and the GEA DairyNet connection, current data can be displayed, key figures of the milking processes can be viewed and service and maintenance work as well as comprehensive system monitoring can be carried out via remote access.
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The user interface is based on a language-neutral concept with intuitive operation.
On the terminal at the milking stall, four luminous surfaces use different colours to indicate the status of the ongoing milking/cleaning process as well as alarms.
A modular product design allows farms to select the scope of functions individually. Additional functions can be easily retrofitted later. Thanks to the associated software and plug & play hardware, the system can be configured and installed more quickly, resulting in time and cost savings during installation and commissioning.
GEA has also optimised the supply chain concept for the new milking control units.
A pre-assembled scope of supply replaces several individual deliveries, which means that installation is faster and almost waste-free. The market launch of GEA DairyMilk M6750 will initially apply to the new T8600 milking carousel and the existing T8900 carousel.
Retrofitting for all other conventional GEA milking systems will be successively available worldwide in parallel with the availability of GEA DairyNet.
