Determination of operating parameters in milking robots with milk first cow traffic

Abstract

The most important development among technological products has been the realization of milking processes with robotic systems. The main purpose is to reduce the labour, increase animal welfare and improve the quality of life of farmers with the use of robotic systems. Milking robots, which have been used for 30 years in developed countries, entered Turkey about 10 years ago. Robotic milking technology, which has become popular in our country in a short time, will be the most common technological development of dairy cattle enterprises in the future. In this study, it was aimed to determine the parameters and milking values for increasing the efficiency of robotic milking systems, which were acquired with high investment costs, by monitoring the operation in a commercial farm. The farm where the research was carried out was planned according to "milk-first cow traffic" and there are a total of 500 Holstein Friesian breed dairy cows in the farm. Some of the main parameters examined are; number of cows milked per robot, daily milking frequency per cow, daily milking distribution, hourly milking distribution of robots, daily milk yield, milking yield, milk flow, cow's milking time interval, rejection number and duration, robot's daily milking number, robot's milking loading rates in cleaning, idle and non-milking processes, etc. In the two-year trials comparing 8 robots in four barns, the average number of milkings per cowwas found to be close to each other across the herd (2.66, 2.70 units/cow, day). In the first year of the trials, the average daily milk yield, yield per milking and time spent on the robot were 32.6 kg, 12.1 kg and 7.41 min, respectively, while in the second year these values were 37.2 kg, 13.9 kg and 7.63 min. Minutes are set. Grouping of animals according to their yield in the second year can be shown as a reason for this change. While the average daily milking number of the robots in the farm was 148.5 times in the first year, this number decreased to 138.3 in the second year, while the daily milking intervals of the cows increased from 8.56 h to 8.72 h.