The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group It Used To Be a Cow of a Job Gary Taig garyt@melbpc.org.au

Computers have given Max and Evelyn Warren of Winnindoo a way of life vastly different to that which most modern day dairy farmers know and understand. No longer do they have to rise at 5.00 am to round up the herd on a motor bike; because the cows come in and milk themselves.
 
Yes, the cows milk themselves. What's more, they come in when it suits them, not when it just happens to suit the farmer.

The Warrens no longer repeat the milking exercise late in the afternoon because again, the cows come in when it suits them. Milking is spread throughout the full 24 hours each day. Sounds strange doesn't it, but it's true. I saw it happening and undoubtedly it's the way of the future in dairy farming.
 
Here is another remarkable aspect of this story. The Warren's cows are contented cows, they come in for milking more frequently and thus produce more milk. This would not have been possible 30 years ago, nor 20 years ago. Computers and other modern technologies have helped make all the difference, where, for the average dairy farmer to attempt to milk more than twice daily is simply not practical.

To top it off, Max and Evelyn log on and check the milking of the herd via the Internet. Now hang on, before you turn the page in disgust, this is not a tall story! You too can log on and see some of it happening.
 
Max Warren is a dairy farmer through and through and once that life is in your blood, to the extent it is with him, it's hard to give up the lifestyle. But Max loves technology too, and dreams of the day when he can laze back on his yacht somewhere closer to the equator and keep tabs on the herd through a laptop and satellite phone. That's Planning with a capital P, is it not?

Winnindoo is tucked away in Gippsland in Victoria, just a short few kilometers north of Rosedale. Two hours drive from Melbourne. Anyone who has driven eastward from Melbourne, perhaps to a holiday at Lakes Entrance or maybe travelled the coast road to southern New South Wales will have passed within about five minutes of Winnindoo.
 
Robotics has arrived in dairy rich Gippsland; it is here to stay and no doubt will spread through the entire dairy industry in this country. Are you imagining little humanoid characters with powerful, mechanical arms and legs, standing by the milking platform waiting for the next cow to enter? Can you see in your mind's eye this little "mechanical thing" gently stroke the cow and then reach out to pick up a bucket and wash the teats before launching into another milk collection?
 
No, it doesn't work that way. The robots are machines, yes, but you would not recognise them as robots. In fact, if you stood beside the robot, knowing you were at a dairy farm but not paying particular attention to what was going on around you, the robot would appear to be just another type of milking machine you'd never seen before. It might be some time before several cows pass through and suddenly you would realise there is no human activity involved; nobody connecting the machine to the cows.

This machine is the Astronaut. That's the name given to it by the manufacturers, Lely Industries. Not surprisingly, Lely has its origins in Holland. The technology involved is similar to that used by robots of any variety. The robot needs eyes to see, that's achieved with laser beams. For milking the robot needs hands to squeeze the teats, that's achieved with vacuum suction cups. For checking the quality of the milk the robot needs both eyes and brains, that's achieved with laser beams, light and spectrometric analysis.

I don't want to make this sound too simple because the system Max uses has been many years in development but to stand there and watch a cow enter the Astronaut, to see her relaxed and pampered as the teats are gently massaged and washed, the milking cups attach themselves and the rich, white fluid begin to flow is an experience in peace and tranquility. No rush, no bustle, no loud noises, no slaps on the bum from a tired farmer ever conscious of time and his need to quickly move the next cow onto the milking platform. It's a sight dairy farmers will have dreamed about for centuries. Max did - he dreamed about this from the time he was a young lad helping Dad milk the herd. I watched his beaming face with sheer delight as he told the story. His excitement was infectious.

Monitoring The Herd

If you visit http://www.roboticdairy.com you will see live views provided by four of the roving cameras Max has set up around the place to keep an eye on the milking activity. Figure 1 shows Max sitting in front of his main machine where locally he can select from a variety of cameras to send out images to the Net. He checks activity via the Internet from home, too, in the middle of the night. Already a part of his long term dream has been realised.

The large office that adjoins the robot enclosure might be located in any city building. From a comfortable lounge suite you can gaze through the full width windows (Figure 2) to see the cows lining up for a feed and a session in the Astronaut just a few metres away. The office and four Astronauts share a large canopy area and the cows assemble under that canopy to have a feed (Figure 3) and a drink as they wait their turn. It's all very well planned.

Some cows come in several times a day. There is water in the paddocks but the main water supply is in the shed. This has the effect of encouraging them to come in for a drink and a milking. They go out into a fresh paddock each time they are milked. If a cow takes a liking to the pampering and wants to be milked too many times she is told she is deeply loved and sent out to graze. A fascinating gadget installed on the way out of the Astronaut is a big rotating brush at about cow shoulder height - a back scratcher for cows. They certainly have thought of everything.

The Milking Activity

Cows are identified by an electronic tag and the amount of data gathered on each animal is staggering. From feeding and production quantities, lactation etc. through to the location of the teats on the udders, height of the udder off the ground and other personal details that enable the robot to successfully disinfect and wash the teats, attach the suction cups and start the process. The amount of milk being produced by an individual varies throughout the year and naturally a larger quantity of milk causes the udder to hang a little further. The system records teat locations from the last seven milkings and averages that information to assist in finding and washing the teats and attaching the cups.
 
As the cow enters the Astronaut she is given a small amount of feed, then she is gently but firmly enclosed in the unit. A very clever mechanical monitoring arm (Figure 4) with an action similar to that of a pantograph senses her slightest movement and if she steps a little back or forward the entire laser, brush and cup assembly moves with her. This avoids the cups being accidentally pulled off and assists in maintaining a relative positioning as the laser seeks to locate the teats.

This smart laser that detects the cow's teats is probably the most significant technology in the whole affair. The laser can position itself in a way that enables a three dimensional image to be created of the expected teat positions.

The front teats are located first (Figure 5) and with that position established it then sets about to locate the rear teats. When these are located the cup is attached to the rear teat that took longest to milk last time she came in. The two rear quarters of a cow's udder usually produce more milk.
 
Each quarter of the udder is milked entirely separately (but concurrently of course), with the milk from each analysed by a black box known as the MQC Unit (Milk Quality Control) before it is sent into the main collecting jar.
 
Each of the four individual milk flows are checked for conductivity, which is an indicator there might be a subclinical problem with the milk, eg. the presence of bacteria. The temperature of the milk and the volume of milk produced from each quarter is also measured. The conductivity check is not new, dairy farmers have done this for a long time and it assists them in the job of quality control. A change in conductivity indicates a possible problem that can be investigated. However, the Astronaut enables individual quarters to be identified and checked, dramatically improving quality control at the individual cow level. The MQC Unit also checks for mastitis and the presence of blood. It will detect blood and other problems in the milk long before they can be seen by the human eye.
 
Once this milk has passed all checks it is sent through a filter into the holding tank and any milk that doesn't pass all tests is rejected. When released, that particular cow would be sent into a holding yard for examination and concurrent with that a report would be automatically sent by the Astronaut to the office printer.

Cow Health

The Astronaut is also good for cow health. It enables each quarter of the udder to be milked completely and a cup will not be removed until that particular quarter is empty. Problems can arise with semi-automated systems where all cups are removed at the same time. A cup removed from an udder not yet finished affects the cow's ability to produce, not to mention the farmer's overall production figures. More importantly though, if a cup is left on too long and a cow is over-milked she is prone to develop mastitis.

Production

Apart from the fact that a contented cow produces more milk, the main key to improving production is to milk the cow more often. Cows in a regular dairying operation are milked twice daily. When a Warren cow visits the robot twice daily, production is on a par with regular dairies. But, when Max can encourage his cows to come in on their own accord three (or more) times a day, certainly they will eat a bit of extra food and so on, but overall they will produce more milk. The objective therefore with the robot dairy is to encourage them to come in to be milked more often. Max says that often he goes to bed at night thinking about how to encourage them to do just that.

Presently many of them come in three times daily, some of them come in four or five times and while all cows are different, there is still a natural limit on production for every one of them. Max would like to see them all coming in at least three times a day. No doubt over a period of time the detailed computer records will help him determine optimum production against increased food costs and he will plan accordingly.

The Technology

Lely Industries, represented locally by Lely Australia has been developing this equipment over many years and apparently there are about 1500 units installed worldwide. The first commercial unit was installed in Holland 10 years ago and they are spread throughout the milking industry in 23 countries. Lely also produces a fairly wide range of other farm equipment. Headquarters are in Holland. Research and development is done in Holland.

The MQC Unit measures many things but the most significant is the colour of the milk - a farmer's main indicator of quality. It does that job probably better than any farmer could ever do with the naked eye. Spectrometric analysis is applied widely throughout industry and these days the technology is highly sophisticated.

The laser beams can move around beside and under the udder and they send information into a computer which creates a three dimensional pattern of the teat locations and moves the cup unit accordingly. All of this information is stored for each cow.

The suction cups reproduce the action of a calf sucking on the teat, ie. pulsating rather than a constant, steady vacuum.

The benefits of a computerised system are obvious. No doubt the software will be undergoing regular review and development and Max and other farmers who employ this technology can probably expect to be treated to enhancements as the experiences and ideas of farmers worldwide continue to be documented and the system improved.

There Is Work Involved!

The robot milking machines certainly do change a dairy farmer's lifestyle and enable the farm to be run as a regular 8 am to 5 pm business. Of course someone must always be on call in case of a problem. That's the downside if you can call it that. There is always the potential that you will be called out at 3.00 am but hey, how often? Max says that if he is called out in the night he doesn't mind. You wouldn't, would you if being a robotic dairy farmer meant being able to fix a small problem and go straight back home to bed - with no alarm at 5.00 am.

Modern technology enables immediate communications and remote visual inspection of the works. The cameras can be arranged as desired before Max goes home at night and from then until next morning he simply logs in to the Net when he needs to peek at proceedings. Even if the potential for being being called out in the middle of the night was more than just once every now and then, surely it is much preferred over the alternative, getting up at 5.00 am every day of the year, having a limited social life, and so on.

History vs Future

Over the past several years the Warrens worked with On Farm Electronics, a company based in Geelong, developing a cow ID system and they were already accustomed to having computers in the dairy. The Lely Astronaut system has been just another stage in the achievement of Max's dream. His brave entry into this new technology, completely unassisted by government grants, no special treatment from anyone, often ridiculed by peers who didn't really understand what he was doing, makes Max Warren a real pioneer for the dairy industry in this country. An industry where his peers will eventually shake off the fear and the misconceptions and learn to follow in his footsteps. I believe he will succeed in turning the title of this article around to make milking a Job of a Cow.

The Warrens have just had the busiest year of their lives. Luckily the milking is automatic and pretty much runs itself because hoards of reporters, tourists and the curious people constantly stream through the door. Then they have people like me, asking a lot of questions about their robots. Max and Evelyn are friendly, likeable people and they seem to thrive on it. I wish them well during the next few years as the tourist industry brings in more and more visitors and life becomes very busy again, but for different reasons. That part was probably never included in the dream.

Reprinted from the May 2002 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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