Designing Automated Milking Dairy Facilities to Maximize Labor Efficiency

Jouni Pitkäranta; Virpi Kurkela; Virpi Huotari; Marjo Posio; Courtney E Halbach

doi:10.1016/j.cvfa.2018.10.010

Designing Automated Milking Dairy Facilities to Maximize Labor Efficiency

Vet Clin North Am Food Anim Pract. 2019 Mar;35(1):175-193. doi: 10.1016/j.cvfa.2018.10.010.

Authors

Jouni Pitkäranta¹, Virpi Kurkela², Virpi Huotari², Marjo Posio², Courtney E Halbach³

Affiliations

¹ 4dBarn Oy, Ketojenkatu 8, Seinäjoki 90100, Finland.
² 4dBarn Oy, Kauppurienkatu 23, Oulu 90100, Finland.
³ The Dairyland Initiative, University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Veterinary Medicine, 2015 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53726, USA. Electronic address: Courtney.halbach@wisc.edu.

PMID: 30686462
DOI: 10.1016/j.cvfa.2018.10.010

Abstract

As automatic milking systems grow in popularity in North America, questions about how to design the barn to improve labor efficiency arise. Multiple considerations such as cow flow traffic type, robot positioning within the pen, the number of cows per pen, and how cows are managed around the robots must be discussed during the barn planning period. This article focuses on barn design and pen layout to maximize labor efficiency in herds with single-box automatic milking systems.

Keywords: Automatic milking systems; Barn layout; Grouping; Labor efficiency; Robot layout.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Animal Husbandry*
Animals
Automation*
Cattle
Dairying / economics*
Female
Housing, Animal
Lactation / physiology*
North America