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Long milking intervals become a problem when more than 10% of cows are over 14 hours, or when mid-lactation production drops because cows stop coming to the robot. Then we need to look at herd trends and individual lactations to figure out why cows became long-interval cows.

With 36 robots, Homestead Dairy of Plymouth, Indiana is one of the larger robotic dairies in the United States. It is owned by Brian Houin and his extended family. Many large robotic dairies have several barns with 6 to 8 robots per barn. At Homestead, all of the robots are under one roof – an 8 ½ acre roof.

Fetching too many cows makes robots less available for cows to milk voluntarily, and can lead to a fetching habit. The fetching routine should include fresh heifers, fresh cows, recently moved cows, cows that need motivation, and overdue cows. If your barn is flowing well, you might not have any cows in one or more of those groups.