Robotic milkers

[47of74]

My dad had a couple robotic milkers installed in his barn. Here's a little bit of day two with the robots going full time.

[Scuba]

1. As someone who grew up sitting on a 12" stool building forearms like Popeye....

... I can appreciate the idea.

I'm struggling to see the benefit here, though, compared with old-time suction-based milkers. Seems it's a wash unless the time getting the udders in place is greatly reduced. What am I missing?

And did I see sparks when the robot was trying to get the "suckers" in place?

[47of74]

2. A big benefit is that it's voluntary

The robots attach themselves to the udders. Once the cows and robots are fully trained the robot can handle the milking with minimal human intervention. That will free up my dad, brother, and uncle to do other things (mom's already assembling a to do list). Plus it's beneficial for the cows because once the cows get used to the robots they'll be able to voluntarily come up and get milked when they're ready instead of on the farmer's schedule.

Another farmer in the area who went to this system reported his cows gave a lot more milk on the new system. (And since we don't have a dog we don't have to worry about the dog chasing cows away from the robot like the other farmer's did).

The sparks you referred to were probably the lasers - the robots use lasers to help them attach properly to the udder. They show up on video as flashes.

[Scuba]

3. Thanks, I appreciate the explanation. I'm sure you're right on the lasers.