Listen: Robotic milking system focuses on animal welfare

Photo / File

Robotics is big business around the world and the dairy industry is no exception.

Solution Manager for Automatic Milking Systems in Oceania, Luke Crabb spoke to The Country Early Edition's Rowena Duncum about DeLaval's robotic technology and how it can help not only dairy farmers, but their cows as well.

DeLaval is celebrating a win at Fieldays this year and Crabb says there was a real emphasis on automation and working smarter, not harder.

With that in mind, this week DeLaval has launched its first major release in next generation robotics since 2011, the new VMS Milking system V300.

The new milking system is focused on animal welfare says Crabb, as it ensures cows are more comfortable and this results in fewer infections. The system also emulates a cow's natural life as close as possible which, "allows the animals to make decisions."

"What we've seen is that by milking a cow faster ... we can get it in and out and back out to the paddock where we want it, very quickly."

The VMS Milking system V300 also generates a ton of data about what is going on with each cow and farmers can access and control all this information from their mobile phones.

Crabb says DeLaval's new system not only sets the bar pretty high for the dairy robotic industry, but for robotics in general.

"We're pretty excited about this whole thing ... it really is next evolution, game-changing technology."

Also in today's interview: Luke Crabb explains the technology of the V300 and how it can benefit the cow during the milking process.

Listen below: