Robots Milking Cows

axlrosen writes "The Globe has an article about robotic cow-milking machines. The cows are trained to walk up to the machine, and then "a laser locates the cow's nipples, which are cleaned by rollers coated with disinfectant before being milked by long, white suction tubes on the unit's milking claw. Vacuum-activated rubber rings at the end of each tube massage the nipple, prompting the cow to release its milk.""

Comments

hahahah

[morgothan]

hahahaha april fools hahahaha

dumb ass

Re:hahahah

[jaxdahl]

No, really, this isn't a false article. My dad is a dairy farm technician/dealer and he's known about these for a while.. they cost around $100,000-$200,000 apiece. One company that is working on trial products is this company: Boumatic, their robotics 'page' is here.

Mastitis

[cymen]

Plus the computer has to monitor the flow of the milk to check for globs of mastitis material and maybe check the udder for hardness. In my opinion this sounds interesting but milking parlers have really made the whole milking process pretty efficient. Somehow the human putting on the unit and observing the health of the cow makes me a bit more comfortable with the system.

Re:Mastitis

[cymen]

Slow and expensive sounds horrible to me... I worked on a farm here in America every summer while growing up. They now use the NZ style of rotational grazing plus they put in a milking parlor using some NZ techniques. Some of the stuff that you guys come up with in NZ is pretty neat. I liked the idea of the large round concrete platform that rotated using water as a friction reducing fluid. I don't have more details but basically the idea was the cow gets one and by the time the thing has gone 3/4 around the cow gets off and is done being milked.

I wish I knew more about the results of subsidies. At heart I just hate the idea as it smacks of a quick fix and I really want to blame some things on subsidies for the results we have today but I don't know enough to comment really...

Cheers.

Re:Mastitis

[cymen]

Yeah, my brother was going to become a farmer here in the US but it just isn't possible financially. Least not in any way I look at it...

Working on the farm during the summer vacation was enough medicine for me :). It's great physical work and if you have something to think about the chores aren't too bad but everyday for the rest of your life? Not me.

Kewl

[jo42]

> Vacuum-activated rubber rings at the end of each tube massage the nipple, prompting the cow to release its milk.

Can we have several of these at the local sperm bank?

No AF here!

[nordicfrost]

I've seen this on the news here in Norway. Some farmers joined in on an automated barn, with this automatic milking system. That was over a year ago, though. The cows go to the machine and get a snack when they are in the little milking booth. An inductive radio chip necklace tells the computer wich cow is in the booth and gives detailed statistics to the farmer.

Re:Fuck this

[TwP]

Milk is so insanely overpriced. I for one will be glad the day comes when most mundane tasks such as farming are mostly automated.

Can you say "government subsidies" boys and girls? I knew you could.

For the American dairy farmer to copmete in the global market, the US Government subsidises the dairy industry. This drives up the prices of dairy products locally and allows American dairy products to be dumped on other markets at a much lower cost (because the government is paying the price difference).

So, when you are paying $2.50 (US) a gallon for milk think about this: some of your tax money has already been spent to purchse that milk. You are paying twice for the same product. This is true of any governemnt subsidised industry.