The opening scene from the musical, The Music Man, features a group of salesmen talking shop on a train. (Good clean rap before anybody thought of it). One of the salesmen repeats over and over, “You gotta know the territory.” It’s true of robotic milking too. Robotic milking systems generate huge amounts of data. There are unique key performance indicators and terms that apply to robotic milking. You need someone on your management team who can speak the language and utilize the data. You gotta know the territory.
· See your dairy from a robotic milking perspective – The pillars are the same whether cows are milked in robots, rotary parlors, batch parlors, or even tie stalls. Cow comfort, transition management, forage quality, and reproductive efficiency are the keys to top production. The type of milking system can affect how we manage each of those. A robotic milking system must maximize all four pillars, while minimizing interference with cow flow.
· Find and avoid unnecessary and inefficient milkings – Successful robotic milking involves milking the right cow, in the right way, at the right time. It is important to identify cows that are wasting time because of slow milking, or unnecessary milking, and suggest ways to manage the cows and the system to improve efficiency.
· Develop protocols for training new and fresh cows – Teaching fresh heifers to come to the robot allows them to reach their potential. More daily milkings in early lactation can result in higher peak production. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to training heifers. Each dairy needs to have a customized training program, work with employees to execute it, and monitor the results.
· Recommend working routines to maximize system performance – In a robotic milking system, lost time results in lost production. Time is lost when cows are kept away from the robots by feeding, bedding, scraping, or even fetching other cows. The management team needs to coordinate barn routines with washes, and other daily fluctuations, to keep robots milking as much as possible.
· Help with use of robotic milking system software – Robotic systems allow us to know more about each cow than we have ever known before. To use that information, someone needs to monitor it, prioritize it, and suggest actions. The right reports can streamline the process.
· Train employees to work in your robotic barn – Fetching cows and monitoring the robotic milking system require specialized skills. New employees need to learn those skills. Experienced employees need to add to their skills and avoid procedural drift. A training protocol can keep employees on track but it needs to be specific to the system.
· Choose reproductive protocols that fit – Reproductive efficiency is even more important for robotic milking because long lactations result in cows that lose their will to come to be milked. Intensive synchronization protocols may interfere with cow flow in a robotic facility. On the other hand, it’s hard to give up intensive protocols that are effective. The protocols must match the goals, facilities and labor.
· Plan the startup process for new installations – Startup is a critical time for a robotic dairy. A successful startup can have the barn flowing in a matter of months. It can take more months to retrain cows and people after an unsuccessful startup. You get what you prepare for. Failing to plan is planning to fail.
· Support your management team from a robotic perspective – Successful dairies – no matter how they milk the cows – have management teams that work together. I have been involved with management teams and management meetings on several diaries and I know that great things can and do happen when the whole team works together for the good of the customer.
You gotta know the territory. At Cow Corner, I know the robotic milking territory and I can help with all of these. Call or email for a free initial consultation. Or, go to www.cow-corner.co to learn more.
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