On line with the new generation of robotic milkers

Monday, April 2, 2012

Jan and Chris Kappers of Olspank Dairy were the first to adopt the new A4 milkers and they appreciate the new features that come with them

by DON STONEMAN

Olspank Dairy, east of Sweaburg, is notable for two reasons. Operators, father and son Jan and Chris Kappers, are the longest running farms with robotic milkers in Ontario. They are also the first in the country to upgrade to the newest generation of robotic milkers.

A year ago, the Kappers replaced their original A2 machines, installed in 1999, with three A4 machines, and were milking 175 cows with them as of the beginning of March. Jan Kappers says the machines have the capacity to milk more cows – 63 to 65 cows each – and he wants to buy more quota.

The Kappers aren't alone in embracing labour-saving technology. After Canada's Outdoor Farm Show last fall, Jerry Claessens, general manager of Lely Canada, based in Woodstock, predicted that half of new installations in dairy barns in 2011 would be voluntary milking systems.

Harold House, an agricultural engineer with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, can't confirm that number, but he agrees that "a substantial portion" of new barns have robotic milkers. Dairy producers are investing in labour-saving technologies for a couple of reasons, House says. Farmers can't match the wages paid in other industries. There's also a shift in how dairy farmers invest since the cap was put on quota prices. Quota sales, and new barn building, slowed to a trickle. Dairymen are spending their money on barn technology instead.

Voluntary milking technology has come a long way in 10 years, House notes. "It's very reliable, although not perfect. It's like any other system," he says.

The Kappers are enthusiastic about the newest features on their milking system – heat detection and rumination counters. Both features give herd managers information they can act on to maintain health and milk production. "The heat detection is great," Chris says. The heat detectors flag cows that are increasing their movements. A decrease in activity might be an indication that a cow is sick.

Another feature that the Kappers appreciate is a cud-chewing measurement. A collar on each cow's neck measures the number of minutes in a day that a cow regurgitates her cud. If ruminations are reduced, the computer flags that cow, Chris explains. "It tells us if there are cows that aren't feeling great," he says.

Both measurements are transferred every time a cow enters the robot to be milked.

Claessens describes the time a cow spends chewing her cud as "a very strong indication of the cow's health and well-being."

A newly fresh cow should be ruminating 200 minutes a day within a week of calving, and the number of minutes ruminating should rise from there. A normal ruminating cow chews her cud for about 400 minutes a day. Claessens stresses that each cow has her own baseline number and it is deviations that matter.

If a change in ration results in less ruminating across the herd, the monitors will reveal that within a day, signalling that perhaps dietary fibre is low. For the farmer, it is an indication that a ration needs to be changed two days before there is a change in milk production levels, Claessens says.

Another feature is a design change that makes these machines more comfortable for the animals. Jan Kappers says cows are more willing to enter the A4 machine than the old A2s.

Lely's Claessens says the older robots operated what was in effect a tandem parlour stall. Cows entered at an angle, walking into what amounted to an enclosed box.

"We called that a K-flow," Claessens says. The new design, called an "I-flow," is a straight-in and straight-out walk for the cow being milked. Across many herds, milkings per 24 hours have increased to more than three from 2.7, an indication that cows are more comfortable in the stalls. Training periods for cows are being shortened.

Claessens says the new robots have new ways of testing for mastitis. The old conductivity test alone, which measured salt, "gives a lot of false positives," Claessens says. The new tests also involve milk colour and temperature. If there is a somatic cell count increase, the milk tends to turn blue, Claessens says.  "We know what our somatic cell count is with every pickup," Jan Kappers says. In early March, the herd average was 225,000 to 250,000.

These milkers can measure milk and protein content as well. They haven't been calibrated with Dairy Herd Improvement, so for now they are turned off, explains Chris Kappers.

There have been lots of changes in how the robot works, Claessens says. "We are focusing on box times." That is the time to prepare a cow's udder, attach the robot to a cow and milk her. Eight minutes is ideal, Claessens says. Some cows have 20-minute box times, and that keeps other cows from using the milker.

The robot will harvest between 2,000 and 2,100 litres of milk per day, says Claessens. "It's really about milk, it's not about cows." BF