CONSULT CORNER

Robotic Milking Resources from John Gerbitz

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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

Guest Appearance on The Dairy Podcast Show

https://www.wisenetix.com/blog/the-dairy-podcast-show-john-gerbitz-robotic-milking-revolution-ep-83

Apr 29, 20241 min read

Guest Appearance on The Dairy Show Podcast

https://thedairyshow.podbean.com/e/things-to-know-about-robotic-milking-systems/

Apr 29, 20241 min read

IF YOU GO

My local newspaper used to highlight articles about upcoming events with bullet points about the event in a box with the title, “If You Go.” It was a quick summary of the things you needed to know if you planned to attend. This is the “If you go” for those considering reducing or eliminating pellet feeding in milking robots. “Before you go” was covered in my last article. Before you go, you should have guided flow traffic, top quality forage, commitment to training, and someo

Apr 25, 20243 min read

FEED STILL BRINGS COWS TO THE ROBOT

In the real estate business, they say property value depends on 3 things - location, location and location. In robotic milking, cow flow depends on 3 things - feed, feed and feed. Has that changed now that there are farms that do not provide feed in the robots?

Apr 18, 20243 min read

A WINNING ATTITUDE

What makes a great robot cow? One dairyman told me he knows within 3 milkings whether a cow has the motivation to get to the robot frequently. He felt that behavior traits were just as important as udder conformation, teat size and milking speed. Another dairyman follows his cow families closely enough to observe differences in cow behavior in his robotic milking system. He identified the cow families in his herd that learn his robotic system quickly. I commented that this wo

Apr 11, 20242 min read

STRATEGIES FOR GROUPING COWS IN ROBOT BARNS

I read somewhere that “There are 2 kinds of people in the world. Those who think there are 2 kinds of people, and those who know that nothing is really that simple.” I think there could be similar words of wisdom for how cows are grouped in robot barns. Especially the, “Nothing is really that simple,” part.

Apr 4, 20242 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

A NEW WAY TO COUNT GATE PASSAGES

Are you comfortable running your gas gauge to empty before you even look for a gas station or do you fill up when you get below half a tank? I use my GPS even when I know where I am going because I have this irrational need to always compare my distance to empty to my distance to destination. In robotic milking, if we compare the number of milkings per cow per day to the distance to destination, then gate passages, rejections and refusals compare to the distance to empty. Gat

Mar 21, 20243 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

STRATEGICALLY MANAGING FOR CONSISTENCY IN ROBOTIC MILKING

As robotic milking technology is employed by more farms, it is inevitable that the versatility of robotic milking systems will be tested in new ways. Consistency is one of the time-honored keys to successful robotic milking but there are all sorts of things that make consistency difficult to achieve. We like to keep cow numbers consistent through the year to keep the robots full without overcrowding. We avoid pen moves so social structure is not disrupted. We anticipate ratio

Feb 15, 20243 min read

COW COMFORT AND COW FLOW IN ROBOTIC MILKING

Last week I had an hour to kill between appointments and I spent it observing cows in a top producing robot barn. I saw a lot of things done very well. What struck me most was the outstanding cow comfort. The facility was designed for comfort with cross ventilation and sand bedding, but more importantly, the cows behaved like comfortable cows. How do comfortable cows behave?

Feb 8, 20242 min read

WHAT FORM OF ROBOT FEED IS RIGHT FOR YOUR DAIRY?

There are many different ways to present feed to cows in the robots. Systems can be configured for 1 feed or 2, or more. Robots allow a choice of feeding a pellet, meal, or liquid. When margins are tight, producers may want to reduce the cost of the robot feed. That won’t improve profits if too much production is lost. Choosing the right form of feed for your robots starts with why. What is the purpose of the robot feed?

Feb 1, 20243 min read

4 MORE COWS EVERY 10 SECONDS

I was watching cows go through the robots as I was completing an initial farm visit last December. My mind wandered, and I started calculating how many extra milkings you get from a robot if you can save 10 seconds per milking? I did the math in my head with some conservative values. At 155 milkings per robot per day, saving 10 seconds per milking yields 1550 seconds per day. With a 6 ½ minute milking duration, 1550 seconds is about 4 milkings. What would 4 extra milkings per

Jan 25, 20242 min read

THE BUTTERFLY AT THE FEED BUNK

In his book, The Essence of Chaos, Edward Lorenz described the butterfly effect as, " The phenomenon that a small alteration in the state of a dynamic system will cause subsequent states to differ greatly from the states that would have followed without the alteration ." That's a mouthful. In more simple terms, the theory is that a butterfly in India could flap its wings and start a chain of events that could cause a tornado in Iowa. The parallel in robotic milking is, eve

Jan 18, 20242 min read

HOW MUCH ROBOT FEED IS SHE REALLY EATING?

Feed tables get a lot of attention when we discuss pellet feeding in robots. Feed tables are important, but it is just as important, if not more important, to know how much a cow actually eats. There are a few factors that affect what a cow eats in the robot, regardless of the brand.

Jan 11, 20242 min read

THE RIGHT FEED TABLE FOR EACH STAGE OF LACTATION

If you multiplied the number of robot manufacturers by the number of robot farms and the number of nutritionists, you might have an approximation of the number of ways to control pellet feeding in a robot barn. There are a lot of ways, and they don’t all involve feed tables. If feed tables are used, the most basic variable is whether the table is controlled by days-in-milk or milk-yield. A days-in-milk feed table adjusts robot feed according to how long a cow has been milking

Jan 4, 20243 min read

WHAT DO THE PACKERS HAVE IN COMMON WITH ROBOTIC MILKING?

My son and his wife gave us tickets for the Packer game last weekend. Lambeau Field is always a great experience, and my wife and I had a great time, but it was clear that this is a rebuilding year for the Packers. In some positions, they don’t have the players they would like to have on the field. In other positions, they have the right people, but those people are still learning. The coaches have to develop a game plan that works with the players they have. Sometimes roboti

Dec 21, 20233 min read