Milking longer with maize silage
This season's dry conditions have made one thing clear: not having enough feed on hand can bring your season to an early close.
ErgoPOD focuses on ten key drivers developed to optimise the milking process and enhance overall productivity.
Waikato Milking Systems’ latest innovation, ErgoPOD is now commercially available within New Zealand and Australia.
This state-of-the-art semi-robotic milking technology promises to increase milking speed, productivity, and efficiency in the milking parlour, the company says.
Designed to break productivity barriers, Ergo- POD is said to focus on ten key drivers developed to optimise the milking process and enhance overall productivity.
“ErgoPOD redefines milking precision with its advanced quarter-milking technology, enabling early detection of health concerns for faster, targeted intervention at the individual animal level.
“Engineered with hygiene and milk quality as core priorities, ErgoPOD uses individual per quarter milk lines rather than the traditional milking cluster. This eliminates cross-contamination between quarters and allows for precise milk sampling from within each quarter to identify potential infections,” WMS says.
Additionally, the DairyHQ Parlour Management System enhances this process by delivering real-time production data and live updates on cow health and system performance, empowering farmers to make informed decisions with confidence.
ErgoPOD is engineered to reduce energy and water usage, promoting greater environmental stewardship. Its seamless integration into both new and existing rotary dairy installations ensures operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
“With ErgoPOD, our vision was a future where efficiency, safety, and animal well-being converge seamlessly,” says Jamie Mikkelson, executive chairman, Waikato Milking Systems.
“Our mission was to provide dairy farmers with the technology to achieve unprecedented productivity and efficiency to milk more cows, while prioritising the health and safety of both operators and cows.
“For dairy farmers driven to enhance milking time productivity and efficiency, with an improved return on investment, ErgoPOD is the ultimate solution,” says Mikkelson.
Retiring Fonterra director Andy Macfarlane believes the co-operative has made good progress over the past decade but adds that there's still a way to go.
Visiting US climate change expert Dr Will Happer says the idea of reducing cow numbers to greatly reduce methane emissions is crazy.
Federated Farmers has launched a new campaign, swapping "The Twelve Days of Christmas" for "The Twelve Pests of Christmas" in an effort to highlight the most troublesome farm pests.
The Rapid Relief Team (RRT) has given farmers in the Tararua District a boost as they rebuild following recent storms.
The Government is set to announce two new acts to replace the contentious Resource Management Act (RMA) with the Prime Minister hinting that consents required by farmers could reduce by 46%.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change would be “a really dumb move”.
OPINION: Dipping global dairy prices have already resulted in Irish farmers facing a price cut from processors.
OPINION: Are the heydays of soaring global demand for butter over?