A WORLD-FIRST robotic dairy was yesterday thrown open for inspection.
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Nick Dornauf and partner Rebekah Tyler run the 200 hectare Gala property, near Deloraine, one of the Dornauf family's four dairy farms and the first commercial dairy in the world to use a fully automated, rotary milking system.
The automatic milking robot was developed by Swedish dairy equipment company DeLeval and the Sydney-based dairy research program FutureDairy.
Mr Dornauf said that the farm started using the computer-controlled system in February, getting the cows used to the full automation in stages.
``The cows wear collars with tags that are recognised by the computers that control the milking robots, smart gates, automatic feeders and herd-management software,'' Mr Dornauf said.
``We were milking 200 cows in five hours manually before and now manage 250 in about 3 1/2 hours.
``It's called `voluntary milking'.
``The cows head for the milking area themselves - they get a feed of grain after milking is over - and the computer reads their collar and either allows them in to be milked or, if they're not due, opens another gate that lets them back out into the paddock.''
Even the milking cups go on the teats automatically.
Ms Tyler said that the aim was to increase Gala's herd to between 500-600 milking cows, in stages, during the next three years.
``The limiting factor will be what the farm can sustain - the robotic milking system can handle that many,'' Ms Tyler said.
``When the cows get their feed of grain, post milking, the computer recognises their tag and gives them the right amount of feed for where it sits in the lactation cycle.
``And not all the grain is fed at once, so if another cow buts in and the first cow goes to a different feeder, the computer knows how much it's had and how much more it should get - once it's had its quota, it doesn't matter how many feed troughs it tries, no more grain will be forthcoming.''
Mr Dornauf said that another benefit of the dairy's new system was the data provided on the quality and make up of the milk from each of a cow's teats.
