Great Video, I love the idea of Robots especially in the meduim to large scale dairies, thanks for sharing

Very interesting! 👍 I wasn’t raised in a dairy family but I’ve always admired dairymen. Keeping up with and hopefully ahead of the “economy of scale” is always a good thing. And to people like Julian, you are a farmer! And, though I dont know you, Quite likely you’re a third or fourth generation farmer that likely started back when 100 cows could support two families.👍

Hello from Indiana. Glad this technology is helping you to bring in more income and less stress on the dairy cows.

And then there was my 18 cow herd with 2 single unit De Laval milking machines---- Fred

I tuned into to see a robot milker in action not just talk about them!

How many people you want for all the farm jobs like feeding cleaning ?

Having worked with cows most of my life and worked in the conventional system of milking in a parlour to now have 2 robot milkers, i think there is always pros and cons to both methods. milking the cows you end up knowing them more and bonding with the cows in the heard. you also get chance to see / inspect if they have any problems with there teats, udder, feet or other. When the robots are new and everything is clean it looks good, however in a few years time the robots have gremlins and need lots of maintenance, like any machine. Staff, is about the same as you would be surprised how much work involved in keeping everything clean. one advantage of robot is normally (unless major problem) they should be running during the night and no need to have to wake up at 1am like i did for years. plus the robot has individual tubes from each unit / teat into its own sensor so can detect high cell counts or a problem, and will dump the milk if its not fit for the tank. cleans between each cow. Its not all glory, if i am honest from all the systems i have seen, I still think a rapid exit parallel with feeders is a good parlour to have if it had the technology of detecting the milk and self cleaning of the unit between each cow (if this is available) would be my preferred option. just see how friendly the mature cows are with me in my videos, this is because i have known them since they was born and milked them in the old parlour and we have a bonding, they trust me and i take good care of them. obviously all of them are super friendly and like me because i also look after / clean out all the heifers. like anything pros and cons to both systems. i just don't think you save much time or staff either way.

With that many robots, if one (or two or three) break down, not much of a big deal versus a single unit on a small farm going down.

That is a great example of #agbioscience innovation in Indiana!

wont get to see robots do anything

I wonder what kind of deal they cut him to put in all these robots, he says he saves so much on labor, but he doesn't talk about what cost to maintain. Go back and ask him what he thinks about robots in a couple years.

do the robots drink any milk,no do they buy anything, no they are just machines

What do u do with all the manure

Do you need a worker/ helper?

OH! The humanity of it.

Old school.

Wait 5 years when those parts are obsolete and you have to update the software every year?

I see two great hopes for the dairy industry. Robotics, and beef on dairy. Take that bottom half of your performers, and breed them to a good line of beef genetics. Take your top half and breed them to great milk genetics for your replacement heifers, and get a cash rush from selling others off as breeding stock. We’ve been lured away from stackable enterprises for decades. In my opinion, it’s been a huge mistake.

What's next, robots that slaughter cows at the right time and place, so as not to bother the cow much during the process?

So you got rid of the labors...

Milk,the new coal.

Large installations of robots are uncommon but do exist. The robots are really intended as a saviour to the "small" farms, milking minimum of 50. More cows mean more robots, and once you reach a few hundred cows, there is no economy of scale with them versus the capacity of a large parallel or rotary parlor operated at all hours. The real reason, as he said, was the availability of labor, basically Mexican illegals. Once Trump clamped down on immigration, Wall or no Wall, labor supply vanished.

As someone reared on an irish dairy farm this is an abomination. Cows locked up like battery hens, compared to cows who can roam outside eating grass. That is why Irish butter and beef are so superior to this factory output.

Sucks. Robots deprive breathing living humans to a honest days work. I dont care how efficient it is

I hope those robots like milk because who is going to buy the milk. These efficiency gains are short term and will fail in the end.

Factory farm.

Drink Soy milk and forget the cow.

We were milking the cows, ahh no you weren't your workers were milking the cows you sit behind a desk he's a farm manager not a farmer any more!!

Lol no wonder theirs no jobs. Perfect example of it being all about the money. This guy being interviewed is what’s wrong with the world

Do you need a worker/ helper?