It is clear – high tech devices are here to stay. A friend of mine was just telling me how his granddaughter was going up to his flat screen television set and attempting to use it like a touch screen on a smart phone to display something other than what they were watching. Just this morning, I was talking to a feed consultant who also illustrated how his five year old son constructs Lego creations and controls them with robotic technology. Be assured, these kids will live and work in a far different world than we know.

Agriculture is not going to be left behind in this transformation to automated management. We are already familiar with the terms “precision ag” and “precision dairying”. Robotic milking has been prevalent in Europe since 1992. As of a year ago, Michigan had ten farms milking cows with robotics. The Knigges, near Omro, Wisconsin, installed their first two robots in 1999. They replaced the original two Lely robots in 2009 with the Lely A-3’s and make software updates on a regular basis. Knigges also just installed automated calf feeding and are extremely happy with that decision.

At the present, there are several volunteer milking systems (vms i.e. robots) dairies in southeastern Wisconsin and a pocket of quite a few in northwestern Wisconsin and into Minnesota. Popularity is increasing especially with dairymen who would prefer not to content with the challenges often associated with a staff of employees. It appears that there is a segment of producers who have not had the desire to grow their dairies into the several hundred cow range and may be housing and milking in tie stall barns or others who have built smaller free stall barns and are milking in a flat barn parlor or switch milking in their old barns. Here in eastern Wisconsin a number of these producers have not made a big financial commitment to a parlor that they are financially married to and therefore are considering robotic milking as an option. Other characteristics of this group of dairymen, who are currently considering robotics and automated calf feeding, are farms that know dairying can provide a consistent and profitable income stream when combined with a grain operation. Diversification can spread risk when the grain markets are lower than desired; running grain and forage through cows can add value to those feeds.

A majority of the dairymen considering robots often seem to range in size from 65 cows to 150 cows. Some of these owner/operators are in their 40’s and 50’s and have children just now making a commitment to a dairy farming career. Many of these farms are well established and because they did not do large expansions over the last number of years, have a high enough level of equity to make the large investment into robotic milking a possibility.

A high level of equity although, does not pay the bills or make a million dollar investment to milk 150 cows an attractive return-on-investment. At this time, the paid labor rate to milk cows is not so high as to make robotic milking a cost effective alternative only from that point of view.

Those farms that have gone to robotic milking and those looking at the option are producers who would like to improve their quality of life by gaining the freedom to do something other than milk cows for hours on end every day. Being tied down to a twice or three times a day milking schedule does not match the rest of the world’s schedule and makes it difficult to participate in a number of family and other social activities. Those who have installed robotic milking machines are able to spend more quality time with their family and friends, attend their kids’ school functions, participate in off-farm activities more often and reduce the physical pressure on their bodies. The physical demands of milking cows can be very hash on joints and muscles over a number of years. When family members aren’t tied down all day-every day milking cows in a stall barn or parlor, robots could free them to take an off-farm job. Off-farm employment allows individuals to add to their family’s income, may provide health insurance benefits and allows them to pursue other interests in life.

I would encourage dairy farmers to study their business options, visit and talk to industry professionals, and by all means talk to those producers who are now using robotics. Very little financial data, herd health and operational information has been generated and made available to the industry so putting together business plans requires a considerable amount of guess work. A group of producers who would occasionally meet and share their experiences would be a goal I have in mind. Hopefully more information will follow in the near future. In the meantime, please feel free to call me and share your thoughts.

A four-rotor, camera-equipped drone hovers during a demonstration flight at a McMinnville, Ore.,

Young Kim is a former U.S. Air Force pilot and familiar with the “outcome oriented” use of drone aircraft by the military. Get them over a target, conduct the surveillance or fire the missile – that’s how success is gauged.

Putting drone technology to work in agriculture, as he does now as general manager of Bosh Precision Agriculture in Virginia, requires an entrepreneurial mind-set.

“Do not waste growers’ time,” he said at drone technology forum in the heart of Oregon’s wine country this week. “You’ve got to deliver value very, very quickly. Show them how it will increase yield and lower inputs costs.”

Kim believes unmanned planes, equipped with sensors and cameras, will rapidly transform agriculture by providing quick, detailed information on plant health, soil and water conditions, disease or pest outbreaks and more. He said it’s a change similar to moving from analog to digital technology.

Agriculture is in the midst of a significant transformation, he said. The “biggest ag boom since the 1980s” is accompanied by a trend in which the number of farmers is declining but the acreage farmed by each is increasing, Kim said. At the same time, those farmers working large plots of land want the intimate knowledge they used to have of smaller acreage. Drones can provide that, but Kim said people shouldn’t get hung up on the “sexiness” of the technology.

“The real value is the data,” he said. “Focus on the problem of the grower and work backward from there.”

Kim was among a series of experts speaking at a day-long precision agriculture forum held in McMinnville, at the Yamhill County Fairgrounds. The county’s part-time economic developer, Jeff Lorton, believes the area’s renowned vineyards will benefit from the technology and hopes the county can attract drone makers and the legions of engineers and programmers who will follow the industry.

The forum included a brief outdoor demonstration of a small, four-bladed helicopter equipped with a video camera, which zipped about 50 feet in the air and hovered above the crowd. Images captured by the video camera were displayed on screens mounted on a control truck. About 100 people attended the forum, including vineyard owners, researchers and students.

John Parmigiani, an OSU mechanical engineering professor, displayed a fixed-wing drone painted to resemble a predatory hawk and programmed to mimic its flight patterns.

A student team under his direction built it as a project in 2012. The team wanted to find out if the “Mock Hawk” would scare damaging robins, starlings and cedar waxwings from vineyards, but the birds didn’t show in numbers enough to make the tests conclusive, Parmigiani said. The university is eager to test the drone again, he said.

“You can tell this thing what to do and it will go out and do it,” he said. “This really looks promising, the technology is there.”

Researchers with the University of California-Davis have test-sprayed vineyards and nut orchards with a 200-pound, unmanned helicopter made by Yamaha Motor Co. About 2,000 of the devices are in use in Japan, said Ken Giles, a UC-Davis agricultural engineering professor. Regulations have limited the researchers to spraying only water so far, not actual pesticides, but application coverage, speed and cost considerations appear favorable, Giles said. The ability to spot spray crops could be a significant advantage, he said.

To reassure potential critics, university researchers opened flight demonstrations to the public.

“You want to talk about a couple things people get jumpy about, it’s pesticides and drones,” Giles said.

Eric Folkestad, president of the Cascade chapter of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International said groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union are worried police agencies will use drones to peek into people’s backyards without a search warrant. Agriculture has no such interest, he said.

“We don’t use these systems to spy on people,” he said. “We’re the good guy drones.”

In farming, the technology can mitigate risks, Folkestad said. He predicted drone use will become like other specialized crop services offered by companies or co-ops, rather than taken up by individual farmers.

Ryan Jenson, chief executive of the Portland-based HoneyComb Corp., said his company will begin selling its fixed-wing Ag Drone in January 2014. The drone, “ready to go out of the box,” costs $14,995, can be launched by hand and comes in a case that can be thrown into the back of pickup for transport to fields. “It’s a flying robot,” he said.

The drone’s cameras, including infrared sensors, will provide early detection of disease or pest outbreaks, irrigation problems, plant stress or other issues, Jenson said. His company will process the data at a per acre charge to be determined later, with the first month free.

A key point in the forum discussion came when an audience member asked Jenson if his “drone in a suitcase” is legal for farmers or service companies to fly. The short answer is “not yet,” but the Federal Aviation Administration is working to establish drone guidelines by 2015. For now, unmanned aerial systems may be flown for pleasure or in conjunction with university research, but advocates are optimistic the FAA will recognize the value of agricultural applications.

When the FAA integrates commercial drone use into the national airspace, backers expect an industrial boom. The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International projects the idustry will produce an $82 billion economic impact and create more than 100,000 jobs by 2025.

Agriculture is likely to be an early adapter of the technology, speakers at the McMinnville forum said.

Michael Wing, an OSU forestry professor who will test drones over three Yamhill County vineyards in the coming year, said the industry is just getting started.

“It’s a revolution in the application of remote sensing, and it’s happening right in front of us,” he said.

Source: Capital Press

GEA Farm Technologies recently hosted its 2013 Innovation Dairy Tour. Dairy producers from 12 states attended the two-day event to see industry-leading technologies in action on five innovative dairies, including an automatic teat dipping system, a robotic milking system and several other new industry innovations.

Photo left: The recent Innovation Dairy Tour allowed producers from across the country to network with one another and industry experts about new technologies. On-farm tours helped the group to see innovative technologies in action.

“The goal of the Innovation Dairy Tour was to bring producers from across the country onto dairies to see how their peers are operating efficient and profitable dairies,” said Matt Daley, president and chief executive officer of GEA Farm Technologies. “By networking with other dairy producers and the GEA Farm Technologies team, producers learned first-hand how to improve parlor efficiency, milk quality and overall herd performance.”

Visiting producers traveled throughout western Michigan to tour a pocket of dairy operations during the tour. “We chose this group of dairies because they represent new thinking and a variety of new technologies,” said Jerry Quellhorst, sales consultant for GEA Farm Technologies who works with each of the five host dairy producers. Quellhorst explained that these managers are getting more cows through the parlor per hour with fewer employees, are raising calves more efficiently and are better able to reallocate labor resources. “Overall, these operations are more efficient because of the technologies they’ve implemented.”

Photo right: Cow comfort and parlor efficiency were key themes of the Innovation Dairy Tour, hosted by GEA Farm Technologies. Industry experts in attendance credited technological advancements for helping the industry move forward.

Quellhorst added that the variety of dairies visited during the tour gave the producers a look into several management strategies and technology options. Producers attending the tour appreciated the hands-on approach of the event, saying that the tour allowed them to have an open dialog with each other and the host dairies about the installation process of the new technologies and discuss tips for implementing the technologies on-farm.

Dairies visited on the tour and the technologies showcased are as follows:

Gingrich Meadows Dairy, Leroy, Mich.: Owned by Amy Martin and Shawn Gingrich, this new facility was built in April 2012 and now milks 320 Holsteins with two MIone four-box robotic milking systems. Amy Martin shared that the cows have transitioned into the system easily and that they have been able to reallocate labor resources to other areas of the operation.

Photo right: Dairy producers from 12 states recently attended the Innovation Dairy Tour in Michigan. The producers toured Gingrich Meadows Dairy in Leroy, Mich., where they heard from owner Amy Martin on her experiences with the MIone robotic milking system. Martin told the group that the system allows cows to enter and be milked up to five times per day, creating a calm efficiency in the parlor.

“The cows are more calm and content than ever before and our employees have more time to manage cows and spend time monitoring the herd,” she said, explaining that cows enter the robotic system routinely to be milked up to five times per day. “This is a new way of managing our farm that’s made our cows more content and helped our kids become interested in returning to the farm.”

Hillhaven Farms, Edmore, Mich.: This facility started in 1998 by Mike Rasmussen. At the time, the producers built a 2 x 16 Magnum 40 Herringbone Parlor, and later upgraded to DemaTron 70 detachers. With the goal of improved milk quality and parlor efficiency, the owners recently added the ApolloTM MilkSystem and FutureCowTM Prep System.

Photo left: During the Innovation Dairy Tour, hosted by GEA Farm Technologies, producers toured Hill Haven Farms in Edmore, Mich. Owner, Mike Rasmussen told the group of his success with the ApolloTM MilkSystem and FutureCow™ Prep System in terms of improved milk quality through consistent udder prep and post-dip.

“The combination of Apollo and FutureCow is helping each cow to be prepped and post-dipped the same way every time they enter the parlor,” Rasmussen said. “Milk quality begins with preventing new infections; this new system helps with that by minimizing employee error. The system is set to do the job right each time.”

Photo right: The addition of the FutureCow™ Prep System has helped employees at Hill Haven Farms to consistently and efficiently prep each cow prior to milking. This new technology was showcased to producers during the recent Innovation Dairy Tour in Michigan.

Son Rise Farm, Westphalia, Mich.: John and Debbie Feldpausch began this calf facility in February 2010. Today, these calf growers raise about 200 calves in individual calf hutches and 350 calves on four DairyFeed Automated Quattro Calf Feeders. They also utilize a UV Pure, which uses ultraviolet light to purify calf milk – killing harmful bacteria while maintaining the vital nutrients naturally found in the milk. The growers credit the automated feeding system as a more efficient option for calf raising.

Photo below: Producers visited Son Rise Farm in Westphalia, Mich., during the recent Innovation Dairy Tour. Owner John Feldpausch discussed his experiences with automated calf feeders during the event, crediting the automated system for boosting average daily gains in his custom-raised calves.

“Our goal is to have a 2-pound average daily gain (ADG) per calf in the first 60 days,” John said. “We’re moving toward this goal with the auto-feeders, with a large percentage of calves doubling their birth weights by weaning. These calves have a greater potential to get in the parlor sooner and make more milk; it’s hard to meet these goals in the individual feeding system.”

Vanderploeg Holsteins, Ithaca, Mich.: This 72 stall AutoRotor Performer parlor was installed in October 2012 by Klaus, Mares and Tony Vanderploeg. Today, 2,250 Holsteins average 87 pounds of milk per head per day in the facility.

Photo left: This 72 stall AutoRotor Performer parlor was a highlight of the Innovation Dairy Tour in Michigan. Through the automated system, four employees are able to milk 72 cows in an eight minute time period at Vanderploeg Holsteins in Ithaca, Mich.

Farm managers at the facility say that the rotary parlor has improved efficiency and reduced the number of employees needed in the parlor. Cows enter the rotary parlor one at a time through a system of gates and are then rotated to employees who each have a designated task. Through the system, four employees are able to milk 72 cows in an eight minute span.

Rich Ro Colony, St. John’s, Mich.: Owned by Glenn and Brett Feldpausch, this dairy averages 82.4 pounds of milk per head per day on 2,735 Holsteins. The herd is milked in a 2 x 44 Magnum 90i parallel stall parlor and each cow is prepped with the FutureCow Prep System.

Photo right: Rich Ro Colony in St. John’s, Mich., was a stop on the recent Innovation Dairy Tour, hosted by GEA Farm Technologies. Co-owner Brett Feldpausch shared changes the team has implemented to stay above a production level of 80 pounds per cow per day, including consistency in the parlor.

“This is the first summer that we never dropped below 80 pounds per head per day,” said Brett. “We credit part of this to changes in our milking routine. We’re milking fresh cows four times a day, then three times a day through lactation and two times a day as cows near the dry period. To keep milk quality up, we need to be consistent at each of these milkings and the FutureCow is helping with that. It’s the same brush and the same amount of dip each time – and that’s made a difference.”

Photo left: Producers discuss the technology and implementation process of a rotary parlor during the Innovation Dairy Tour. The tour was hosted by GEA Farm Technologies.

For more information on the Innovation Dairy Tour or to connect with producers from the tour, contact GEA Farm Technologies at 1.877.973.2479.

What’s a family farm? How is technology changing farming today? While farming may evoke the picture of tractors in the field and rubber boots in the barn, the truth is that dairy farming is serious business and the investment and advancement in technology has made farms more efficient and sustainable.

The use of some remarkable automated milking systems, which allow cows to choose themselves when to be milked and keeps information about each cow’s production, has gone up steadily in popularity since they were first introduced in Canada nearly 15 years ago.

Building on a solid reputation for commitment to innovation, our farmers are investing in automation of various farming chores, in greater numbers for various reasons: improve the quality of their own work lives or the overall health of their livestock, compensate for labour shortage or to make their farms more sustainable.

Adopting technology may mean more flexible schedules, but does not mean less contact with the animals though — the robot will call the farmer’s smart phone if it spots a problem with a cow for example, but it cannot replace the trained eye and ears of an experienced farmer. Calves, heifers and cows still need attention from humans.

The Canadian Dairy Information Centre indicate there were 273 farms in Canada using robotic milking systems by the end of 2012, or roughly 3 per cent of the dairy barns across the country. Manitoba had the highest percentage of farmers adopting robotics at 12.1 per cent, followed by British Columbia at 6% and Alberta at 5.2 per cent.

While the overall number of Canadian dairy operations using automated systems is still relatively small, it’s significantly higher than the percentage of farms in the United States that have made the move. A recent study by University of Wisconsin Professor Douglas Reinemann pegged the number of farms relying on robots to do their milking at roughly 150, or less than 0.5 per cent of the number of US dairy farms.

Robots are only part of the farm technology story though. Should we care about a cow’s physical activity? More Canadian farmers are adopting pedometry — which employs motion sensors on cows to measure and record their activity. This data is analyzed via computer software programs to help farmers detect when cows are in heat. The technology reduces labour costs, improves efficiency and significantly improves breeding success.

Automated equipment that helps clean manure from barn floors also reduces labour costs and promotes better animal hygiene.

Tending to calves’ nutritional needs can also use high-tech equipment: automated calf feeding systems cut the time devoted to manual feeding by as much as 50 per cent and lets calves drink milk more often, contributing to their vigour.

The growth of various kinds of automation in Canada is another example of our farmers leading the pack when it comes to innovation and investment in technology that makes farms more efficient. Adoption of technology goes hand in glove with different farm management skills as well.

Farmers find the use of camera monitoring systems very useful, especially if they need to monitor the behaviour of animals in special need — like a cow that may show signs of difficulty in calving. Like a mother checking on a sleeping infant from her bedside baby monitor, some dedicated farmers I know look at that webcam in their bedroom during the night to monitor animals with special needs, to know when to get up and tend to them.

Canadian farmers are able to make these investments in innovative technology in large part because of our Canadian system. Production quotas based on consumer demand and price stability allow our dairy farmers to plan for the future and invest in their operations. All this without tax dollars flowing from governments to support farm income — unlike in the U.S. and overseas.

The growing prevalence of robotic milkers on farms across the country is a sign of encouraging times — these investments pay dividends in rural economies and make us all stronger.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca