CONSULT CORNER

Robotic Milking Resources from John Gerbitz

FEATURED ARTICLES

IT MATTERS MORE IN ROBOTS

What matters more in robots? In some respects, almost everything. Some robot farmers complain that they cannot maintain the consistent...

WHAT'S HOLDING YOU BACK IN ROBOTIC MILKING?

There are 3 primary physical limitations on production in robotic milking systems. The first is milking capacity, or the number of...

EVALUATING HERD PERFORMANCE BY PARITY AND STAGE OF LACTATION

Robot herds are unique in that there are management changes built into the system for different stages of lactation. In most parlor herds, once cows leave the fresh pen, they stay in the same pen, get milked the same number of times, and eat the same ration throughout the lactation. Robotic milking systems can be set to adjust the milking frequency and pellet feeding according to milk production and stage of lactation. It makes sense to group data by lactation number and stag

ALL RESOURCES

COW CORNER DELPRO TRAINING FAQ'S

Why is Cow Corner offering DelPro training? Cow Corner’s purpose is to help robotic milking equipment do more for the people who use it. DelPro training is part of that purpose. I worked with DelPro as a dairy farm reproduction consultant before I was a robotic milking specialist. I know how frustrating it can be to find the information you need in an unfamiliar program. I want to help others avoid that frustration.

Aug 29, 20243 min read

NEW GRAPHS ADD VALUE TO COW CORNER WEEKLY REPORTS

Cow Corner has always provided subscription customers weekly information to track trends in robot feed consumption, cow performance and system performance. Starting this week, that information is much easier to use because the reports include graphs. My Dad preferred an analogue watch over a digital watch. Always a very practical mechanical engineer, he said an analogue watch is a graph. He said you don’t use your watch to tell what time it is, you use it to tell how much tim

Mar 28, 20242 min read

THE COW CORNER COW PERFORMANCE MONITORING REPORT

Robotic milking equipment software provides an at-a-glance summary for whole herd performance. The Cow Corner Cow Performance Report gives more detail, grouping cows by number of lactations and stage of lactation for more complete analysis. The Production Performance section is included in the weekly report provided to Cow Corner customers with a monthly subscription. Here are the questions the report can answer.

Mar 14, 20242 min read

THE COW CORNER ROBOT FEED MONITORING REPORT

For TMR feeding, nutritionists talk about the ration they calculated, the ration the feeder mixed and delivered, and the ration the cow ate. The 3 rations don’t always match. Robots are no different. The Cow Corner Feed Monitoring Report is a tool to monitor the robot settings and performance so that what the robot dispenses, and what the cow eats, are as close as possible to what the nutritionist calculated. In my years with robotic milking, I have spent more time with feed

Mar 7, 20243 min read

THE COW CORNER INVENTORY PROJECTION REPORT

Like it or not, almost every dairy herd has seasonal swings in the number of calvings, pregnancies, and milking cows. Sometimes it is intentional, to make best use of pasture or facilities. More often we are backed into it because of breeding problems in hot weather, or avoiding heifers freshening in extreme cold. In conventional barns, we can deal with inconsistent inventory by overcrowding the pen and running the parlor a little longer. In a robot barn, production per cow s

Feb 29, 20242 min read

THE COW CORNER REPRODUCTION AND HEALTH REPORT

The Cow Corner Reproduction and Health Report summarizes several reproductive key performance indicators in one place. It saves the time and trouble of looking in several places for the management information you need. It makes it easy to share information with your veterinarian, nutritionist, or AI specialist who may or may not be familiar with your milking system software. It also provides a side-by side comparison to each of the 2 previous months, the farm goal, and the in

Feb 22, 20242 min read

YOU GOTTA KNOW THE TERRITORY

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 utiliz

Oct 12, 20233 min read

MEET YOUR CONSULTANT

My name is John Gerbitz. I am the owner of Cow Corner and I would like to tell you a little about myself and the experiences that led to my interest in robotic milking.

Sep 11, 20232 min read