![robot_cow_milker[1]](https://www.thebullvine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/robot_cow_milker1-300x178.png)
A historic achievement for DHI services in Canada with the addition of its 500th robotic herd on milk recording. According to Richard Cantin, CanWest DHI’s Manager of Marketing and Customer Services, “It was roughly 15 years ago when we did the first North American DHI sampling in a robotic system. It was new to us back then and the learning curve was very steep, but today DHI testing in robotic systems has become fairly routine.” With 9,000 total DHI herds in Canada (CanWest and Valacta), robotic herds are rapidly becoming an important and sizeable segment for DHI.
“It’s hard to predict how popular and widely adopted robotic milking will become on Canadian farms, but no doubt it will play a significant role in our industry states Cantin. We’re pleased to count a large number of robotic farms as our customers and to be part of their herd management solution, today and into the future.”
Cantin explains, “For DHI, the challenge is to ensure we can both add to and complement the on-farm data so dairy managers and their advisors have the best possible information available for making decisions.”
In robotic herds individual cows’ milk samples are collected with an automated sampling device. Compared to the traditional collection methods, this aspect is very different and unique, but much of the rest of the DHI process is similar to any other herds.
