Labour Productivity

The Milksmart project focuses on improving Milk Harvesting efficiency.

Milk harvesting involves the time spent collecting cows from paddocks, milking, clean up and returning cows to paddock.

This project specifically looks at all the aspects involved in that process, assesses the individual farmer against other farmers, and then provides suggestions for improvement.

Expected outcomes of this project

Benefit

Increased labour productivity in the milk harvesting area - farmers can reallocate saved time to other parts of the business.

Reduced stress on cows due to improved stock handling skills and better designed infrastructure - cows with low stress levels will milk faster and often produce more milk. Reduction in lameness and other cow health and welfare issues.

Improved working environment for people milking through better shed designs and awareness of milking techniques to reduce injury and fatigue  better working environments will result in less injuries and reduced level of fatigue whilst milking, possibly improving worker satisfaction and hence retention.

Increased understanding and adoption of technology that will increase labor efficiency  processes and operations on farm are streamlined and allow farmers to reallocate time to other aspects of the business or reduce overall labour inputs.