Automatic Milking Systems: an option to address the labour shortage on New Zealand dairy farms?

Dairy Cow Welfare in Automatic Milking Systems

INTRODUCTION With any housing or feeding system employed for dairy cattle, careful consideration should be made to both the individual’s and herd’s well-being. Providing optimal welfare for dairy cows is a multifaceted and challenging task. Factors such as good herd management, adequate barn environment, automated milking system (AMS) management, social dynamics of the herd, and human-animal in...

Milking more than profit: Life satisfaction on Wisconsin dairy farms

An Investigation of Automatic Milking Systems and their Impact on Dairy Cow Welfare

Farmers and researchers are interested in improving cow welfare in the dairy industry. One area of research involves use of automatic milking systems (AMS) on farms. These robotic systems have been shown to be effective in decreasing the prevalence of lameness in the herd (Leach et al., 2012) and decreasing cow stress (Dijkstra et al., 2012). According to Jacobs & Siegford (2012), cow wellbeing...

Composition and enzymatic activity in bulk milk from dairy farms with conventional or robotic milking systems.

The objective of the studies reported in this research communication was to investigate differences in composition and enzymatic activities in bulk milk samples provided from Swedish dairy farms with different management systems, i.e. automated (AMS) and conventional milking systems (CMS). A bulk milk sample was collected from each of 104 dairy farms, 51 using AMS and 53 using CMS, located in t...

Labour, Economics and Animal Welfare Assessing Animal Welfare in a Dairy Cattle Herd with an Automatic Milking System

In general there is an increased focus on animal welfare in dairy farms, and it is expected that animal welfare will be an important aspect for public accept of automatic milking systems (AMS) as a production system. Furthermore, experiences from previous studies indicate that there is a large variation between herds in general, regarding animal welfare, due to the effect of interactions betwee...