Robotic milkers remain popular among dairymen despite the slump in milk prices due to fears of worker shortages.
Visitors to the Abiqua Acres dairy near Silverton, Ore., observe cows enter a robotic milking system during a recent open house at the facility. Dairymen have continued investing in such robots despite lower milk prices.
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press Darleen and Ben Sichley of the Abiqua Acres dairy near Silverton, Ore., stand in front of the entrance to a robotic milking system. The family expects the robotic system will allow them to continue operating the dairy without employees.
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press A cow is milked by a robot from DeLaval Dairy Service at the Abiqua Acres dairy near Silverton, Ore. Dairymen have continued investing in such robots despite lower milk prices.
When the antiquated milking parlor at the Abiqua Acres dairy became obsolete, the farm’s owners opted not to replace it.
Instead, they installed a new state-of-the art barn equipped with two robots that milk the cows at their convenience.
The machines will allow the farm to eventually expand its milking herd from 90 to 120 cows without having to hire employees, said Darleen Sichley, who runs the farm with her husband, Ben Sichley, and her parents, Alan and Barbara Mann.
“Robotics made a lot more sense than building a parlor and hiring help,” she said.
The Sichleys and Manns operate the dairy entirely themselves, so delegating the milking to robots frees up hours they’d otherwise spend in the milking parlor.
“We get our lives back,” said Ben.
Milk prices have fallen since the family began planning for the project, but they’re confident the robotic milkers will pencil out over the long term by allowing the farm to remain employee-free.
“We’ve always been family-run,” said Darleen.
Dairy farmers’ average “mailbox” price per hundredweight of milk — the amount of the check they get in the mail, minus transportation and other costs — plunged from a peak of nearly $26 in 2014 to a trough of roughly $14 in 2016. The price has since risen to more than $17 per hundredweight.
Despite their leaner earnings, dairy farmers have continued to invest in robotic milkers because of the concern over worker shortages, said Mark Brown, a regional general manager for DeLaval Dairy Service, which makes and sells the machines.
“That’s what’s driving it, more than anything,” Brown said.
DeLaval has seen sales of robotic milkers grow through the milk price slump, though demand would likely be even stronger if the industry was experiencing an economic upswing, he said.
“If milk prices were high, I don’t think we could build them fast enough,” said Brown.
While the lowest-cost milking systems will cost $1 per hundredweight or less to operate — compared to $2 or $3 per hundredweight for robotic milkers — farmers still see the automated systems as worthwhile, said Larry Tranel, an extension dairy specialist at Iowa State University who’s studied the economics of the machines.
Robots aren’t so much more expensive than many conventional milking parlors as to deter dairies from investing in the technology, since farmers are drawn to the reduced dependence on hiring workers, he said.
“They’re trading labor for technology,” Tranel said.
If immigration enforcement gets more strict, dairies also face the prospect of having to pay higher wages to attract U.S.-born employees, said Brian Gould, an agricultural economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“If the dairy industry is going to have to pay more for labor, it’s going to make robotics more attractive,” he said.
Aside from cutting labor, robotic milkers automatically collect data about cattle productivity and other traits that improve dairy management, said Brown of DeLaval Dairy Service.
New features and software are constantly being developed, including infrared cameras that regularly photograph each cow’s body to track how it’s responding to feed rations, he said.
“The machines are designed so that any future technology can be retrofit onto them,” Brown said.
Data analyzed by robotic milking systems can also alert farmers to any developing health problems before they’re readily noticeable, said Bob Russell, director of DeLaval Dairy Service North America.
“All those metrics can help give you an advance indication the cow may be becoming ill,” he said.
Robotic milkers have grown popular enough that cattle breeders are aiming for “robot ready” cows with characteristics such as square, uniform udders that make teats easier for the machine to locate, Brown said.
Manufacturers are trying to build robots that milk cows on rotating “carousels,” which are prized by large dairies for their efficiency.
As of now, though, those robots are still being perfected because it’s tougher for them to milk cows that are moving, said Brown. “It needs to be fast and in motion.”
Source: Capital Press
