Unmanned farming?

[madmax12]

$210,000 Cow Milking Robot; Presenting the "Astronaut A4 - A Natural Way of Milking"; How Far Off is the Completely Robotic Farm?



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I've been tracking this economic blog for years. This post seemed relevant to this site. Thought some here might find it interesting.

[oldnslo]

I would say a ways off since you will always have that one stubborn cow that will screw up everything.

[rockinmywaypa]

There are quite a few of those operating in this area, ( a dozen farms plus). The farmers time switches from standing around with the milker to reading computer reports and just general herd watching. If a cow doesn't get with the program then she is sold.

[greasemonkeyok]

Didn't see anything in the article about the robot scanning for mastitis.

[aczlan]

Didn't see anything in the article about the robot scanning for mastitis.

Looks like this is the mfg website: Milk quality | Astronaut A4 | Lely
Looks like they claim it detects Mastitis. I don't think it would sell very well otherwise.
Having toured a farm that used such a system, I can tell you that it is very neat to watch it work. One interesting feature with the system we saw (at Mason-Dixon Farms) is that if you flag a cow as needing to be checked, she is released into the watch pen rather than the general herd. Need to catch #12345 for the vet? Just flag her in the system the night before and she will be caught within 8-9 hours after she goes in to be milked.

Aaron Z

[jinman]

This begs the question: Do robotic cows have to be milked by robots?

I'm wondering if in the future all that's available will be soy milk?

[Combustix]

I would say a ways off since you will always have that one stubborn cow that will screw up everything.

They'll invent robotic cows that produce synthesized milk all brought to your table by the friendly chemists at Monsanto

[SPIKER]

I have seen a few articles on similar that state they test the milk from every cow for all sorts of stuff prior to the milk going out to the holding tank pasteurizer/cooler. they have automatic manure management systems as well cleaning cows udders teets the next thing will be something to see I guess... last time I was in a milk house was 30 yrs ago so I'm sure a lot has changed.

MM

[genusCastor]

Having just recently read this article about the dangers of automated stock market trading, I must concur, the machines have taken over.

I'm on the lookout for one o'these:



- djb