Dairy NZ

Automated systems complete the whole milking process without the direct assistance of staff.  Conventional milking systems require staff to carry out key tasks e.g. cup attachment.

What are the main differences between automatic and conventional milking?

• The cows must volunteer for milking (i.e. they must walk from their paddock to the dairy housing the AMS)
• Cows are milked throughout 24h, the farm never stops
• The interval between milkings will be variable and dependent upon a combination of cows willingness to report to the dairy and operator settings
• Milking is on a quarter basis – each teat cup is attached sequentially and removed based on milk flow from that particular quarter
• One cow is milked at a time (or if multi-stall AMS are used up to five cows at a time)
• Fewer clusters are used to milk a herd (e.g. three AMS could milk up to 270 cows compared with say 20 clusters in a herringbone dairy)
• You may not see every cow every day, some cows will always milk at night so information from sensors that indicate milk quality and animal health is critical.

For more information:

• Chart: Key differences between conventional and automatic systems