My husband should probably be jealous. But I think he loves the robots too although he probably won’t admit it. They had allowed us to start going out and enjoying ourselves like the twenty-somethings that we are. You might ask, how is it that they make our lives easier.
One of my favorite characteristics of milk robots is that they are open to milk cows 24 hours a day! It’s like a 24 hour diner, they area always open for the cow to come in and get some pellets to eat and be milked. She can choose her own schedule. Isn’t that cool?!
While they are getting fed, the cows get pellets! They’re like dessert for them.
In my opinion this is one of the things that makes robots such a great deal. A cow who is inclined to make more milk can go in the robot more, that way she never gets too full. A cow who is getting ready to go into her dry period (which is where we stop her from milking and giver a two month break before she calves again) can go into the robot less than the average cow.
Here is a photo of a cow getting milked with our Lely A4 robots.
She truly gets to pick her own unique schedule. She decides when she eats, when she lays down and when she drinks water. It is fun to watch as a dairy farmer and honestly, it makes my life easier. Because we aren’t milking in the parlor anymore where someone has to be in there doing it we have flexibility. If we want to go out to dinner we can just do our work a little early, or if we want to sleep in we can start work a little later in the morning. It really makes this job a ton of fun!
