Robotics transforming dairy industry

An automated dairy farm in Scotland has shown the effect that robotics will soon have on dairy farming worldwide, with many benefits for the environment and increased production per cow; however these trade-offs will likely come at the expense of our traditional farming system where cows live on grass year round.

The farm near Glasgow uses 10 machines to manage a herd of 250 cows. Each cow learns to take itself in for milking whenever it wants, with robotic arms attaching teats automatically. Overhead claws deliver feed, while effluent is cleaned up by a dog-sized robot as the animals eats.

All of this happens inside a shed, with the cows spending their whole lives indoors. While this is a departure from the more ‘natural’ New Zealand system, it offers major environmental benefits as effluent and nutrients do not escape into waterways – which is currently New Zealand’s most pressing environmental problem.

Ultimately it may also be a farming system that New Zealand cannot ignore as it appears to boost production. The cows in Glasgow have gone from producing 28 to 36 litres on average per day, without a proportional increase in feed costs. If northern hemisphere farms adopt the practice wholesale, and boost their production while lowering costs, New Zealand’s domination of low-cost dairying may suffer.