The utilization of two milking robots for one group of cows kept in a loose barn
2005
Tokida, M.(Research and Development Center for Dairy Farming, Tokyo (Japan). Tokyo Office) | Morita, S. | Wada, Y.
The objective of this study was to examine the cows ' visit and utilization of each milking robot in a loose barn that had two milking robots for a group of cows. The data were collected in a Wada farm located Nagano prefecture. Two milking robots (DeLaval "VMS?") were installed in the loose barn. The survey was carried out in June 2003 and the data was collected from October 28 to November 10, 2003 for 98 cows. In the Wada farm, the utilization characteristics were as follows :1) both robots performed over 120 milkings per day, and the operating situation in Wada farm was in good condition;2) the number of times that cows could visit each milking robot was significantly different between the milking robots (VMS-1;154 +-4 times/d. VMS-2;167 +- 17times/d, p0.05) ;3) twenty-six cows visited one of two robots over 90%. Fourteen cows frequently used one milking robot, and twelve cows used another robot; 4) these inequable-visiting cows tended to visit the milking robot in low frequency (42 +-12times/d, p0.05) and they occupied milking robot longer (7.2+-1.8minutes, p0.05) compared with;5) from six to eight cows could visit the milking robot per hour except when the robot was in self-cleaning mode. In the utilization of two milking robots for one group of cows in a loose barn, it was concluded that there were some inequable-visiting to the milking robot by cows, and it might be necessary to balance the number of such cows to achieve high performance in the automatic milking system.
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