Tech | Crazy Moos

February 11, 2011 • 5:00 pm 6

Robots Take Over the World… Well Maybe Just Milking Cows

World Ag Expo 2011

**The World Ag Expo**

I attended the World Ag Expo this year in Tulare, California. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, the World Ag Expo is the largest agricultural exposition in the world. Every year, anyone selling anything to farmers and dairymen exhibit their product lines and anything new they have developed for the New Year. People come from all over the world to attend the event. I seen an interesting statistic that said over 100,000 people attend each day.

**Awesome Loader Tractor**

Our family attends every year. This is our chance to talk with vendors, and find new ideas that could help benefit our dairy operation. Its fun to see all the new technology that’s available been developed noting that technology has progressed pretty rapidly in the dairy industry.

My dad is not one to be left behind of technological changes or even new ideas. He makes it mandatory for us to discover a few new things, and figure out if they would be useful on our operation. So what was the most exciting new thing I found at the World Ag Expo this year?

The Robotic Milking System

One of the main challenges dairies around the world are facing today, is finding employees to milk the cows. Milking cows is a job that is very labor intensive. DeLaval has developed the first robotic milking system that can work in today’s modern milk barn. The system is completely automated using new technology to attach each milking unit to the cows. The system even cleans the cows prior to attaching the machine.

While many of my dairy friends think that robots will never replace humans in the milk barn, I know that robotic technology will get fast enough. This technology is very new so it will still require continuous improvement before it will be economical enough to replace people in the milk barn, but it’s pretty cool to see this new technology actually working.

**The Robots Milking Cows**

Environmental Integrity (cont.)

Past Present

When people think of dairy farming or any agriculture in general, most people would do not think of these industries as being technologically advanced, but they are.

Over the past 2 or 3 decades, dairy farmers have integrated many technological advancements into the farm in order to maximize efficiency’s (just like any other business would do). And there have actually been many advancements in technology that have helped us become better dairy farmers. It’s really a fun time to be in the dairy industry with so many new technologies emerging.

One of the newest technologies on the dairy is our tractor that has GPS. The GPS actually controls the tractor so it can make straight rows when it’s working in the field. The GPS has helped our farming practices become more efficient. The main goal of the GPS technology is to help eliminate wasted energy. Using GPS, the tractor is prevented from overlapping the areas in the field it already went over with the tractor implement.

The tractor is pretty simple to drive. You jump in, start it up, and turn on the GPS navigation. The tractor drives itself. You only have to do the turning!

This technology has helped us become more efficient in the fields, and has benefited our farm in many ways. We save on fuel, labor, and our most valuable asset time. This in turn cuts the amount of fossil fuel we use at the dairy, and helps us produce milk more cheaply.

Tractors fitted with GPS technology is just one of the new and exciting technologies we use at the dairy. I’m planning on posting more about some of the tech we use at the dairy so stay tuned for more.