Glossary | DairyNZ

(From Future Dairy www.futuredairy.com.au - Management Guidelines for Pasture-based AMS farms, 2010)

Automatic milking systems (AMS)

A generic term used to refer to automated systems that complete the whole milking process without the direct assistance of milking staff. These can be a single stall, multiple stalls (where one robotic arm attends to two - five cows) or a series of robotic arms operating on an internal rotary.

Conventional milking

Any system (regardless of level of automation) that requires staff to be present during the milking of a herd.

Cow traffic

Refers to the movement of cows around an automatic milking farm that occurs without human encouragement.

Distributed milking

Milking occurs throughout 24 hours for a single herd. As opposed to batch milking which occurs when a herd is milked as a group in a short time.

Fetching

The action of actively encouraging cows to move to the dairy. Fetching may involve simply encouraging cows from the paddock to the laneway and allowing them to make their way to the dairy at their own pace. This type of fetching activity is not time consuming and is usually undertaken in conjunction with other paddock tasks like moving fences etc. Fetching can also mean times when you need to walk individuals or small groups of cows all the way to the dairy for mating/herd health procedures.

Machine utilisation

Number of milkings per unit, sometimes measured as litres harvested per machine per day. Idle time per machine per day is also used as an indicator of machine utilisation.

Milking frequency

Number of times a cow is milked per day. Farmer can set machine to allow/deny milking for individual cows based on factors like stage of lactation or production level.

Milking interval

Numbers of hours between milkings for each individual cow. Not necessarily a whole number and will vary from day to day and between cows.

Milking unit

Individual crates where milk is harvested from cows. Often referred to as the milking station, robot or the AMS.

One-way gates

Gates that cows push through to enter a defined area but prevent a cow from moving back to the area from which they have just come.

Pasture break

Paddock or part of a paddock containing pasture. Often comprised of a combination of permanent and temporary electric fences.

Pasture allocation

Defined volume or area of pasture (generally measured as kilograms of dry matter – kg DM).

Robotic milking systems (RMS)

A brand/product name of an AMS, sometimes used interchangeably with the term AMS.

Sorting/holding/drafting yard

An area cows are automatically sent to (generally after milking) for treatments, inspection or attention. Terms are often used interchangeably.

Visitation, visitation patterns

The frequency and timing of cow visits to the dairy. This information is captured by the software and can be used to identify cows failing to meet milking frequency targets or to monitor machine utilisation.