Kilter AX-1: First Autonomous Weeding Robot Lands in NZ
Claimed to be the first autonomous robot for New Zealand vegetables growers, the first Kilter AX-1 unit has arrived in the country.
Delaval says its latest addition to the VMS product line, the new V310 detects heat and pregnancy automatically during the milking process.
The V310 comes with the new DeLaval RePro, a feature that DeLaval says extend the robotic milker productivity advantage to the next generation of cows and dairy farmers.
The V310 builds on the success of the VMS V300, launched in 2018: InControl, PureFlow and InSight are standard on both systems with RePro standard exclusively on the V310.
RePro provides dairy farmers with accurate insights into the reproductive status of each cow in the herd.
Using progesterone based sampling and analysis, heat and pregnancy can be detected in real time as well as cows that are not cycling as they should.
This new feature allows farmers to save both time and cost of managing reproduction and unwanted open days.
DeLaval says the new V310 is the first milking system that automatically confirms pregnant cows. This can result in healthier cows and reduced veterinarian costs due to cows becoming pregnant at the right time with more productive lactations.
“With the VMS V310, the robot is in charge of 90% of our tasks. Before we needed ultrasounds, but with Repro we hardly need them anymore because the system tells us when the cows are pregnant”, says Christian Legret, a French farmer who uses V310.
With two models available, it gives you options to choose the voluntary milking system that best matches your needs and farming style. Both the VMS V300 and the VMS V310 feature the core functionality that can help ensure your cows are milked to their full potential, additionally the VMS V310 automatically confirms pregnancy.
The new VMS V310 will become available in Oceania during 2020.
When dairy manager Miriam Lauridsen learned the farm, she was joining held weekly health and safety meetings, she initially thought that was “a bit over the top”. Experiencing that culture changed her mind.
Nominations are open for the 2027 Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year Award.
Keeping up with pasture moisture demands is likely to be the key challenge for dairy farmers during this season’s El Niño weather pattern, says Blue Skies Weather & Climate Services meteorologist Tony Trewinnard.
Farmers have until the end of this week to help shape DairyNZ’s future focus.
Wayne McNee, chief executive of AgriZeroNZ, has resigned and will leave the organisation on 15 January 2027.
The New Zealand dairy sector set a record in the 2025/26 season, producing more than two billion kilograms of milksolids for the first time.
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