{"id":3319,"date":"2023-08-03T03:00:28","date_gmt":"2023-08-03T03:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/how-robots-are-improving-life-for-dairy-cows-farmers\/"},"modified":"2023-08-03T03:00:28","modified_gmt":"2023-08-03T03:00:28","slug":"how-robots-are-improving-life-for-dairy-cows-farmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/how-robots-are-improving-life-for-dairy-cows-farmers\/","title":{"rendered":"How Robots are Improving Life for Dairy Cows & Farmers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Editor\u2019s note: We previously shared a story about how <\/em>robots are being used in making cheese<\/em><\/a>, today we share how robots are being used in the dairy with cows.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Tina and Anna Hinchley <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Happy and healthy cows produce more milk. And technology and robots keep cows happier and healthier. \u201cSome of the girls (cows) will go hang out, closer to the robots,\u201d says Tina Hinchley, who owns Hinchley\u2019s Dairy Farm<\/a>, in Cambridge, WI, with her husband Duane and her daughter Anna.<\/p>\n

The Hinchley family got into robots and technology when Anna was studying dairy science at UW-Madison. Anna, who graduated in 2020, had the chance to work with a veterinarian and professor who was evaluating robot farms. \u201cShe brought back all the knowledge, and asked, \u2018Can we get robots?\u2019\u201d Tina recalls.<\/p>\n

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Upgrades & Robots<\/h2>\n
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Lely robot photo credit Lely<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tina and her husband checked out the farms for themselves, and they decided to invest in a new facility with Lely <\/a>robots. The new dairy facility has water beds for the cows.<\/p>\n

They have a robot that removes the manure from their 240 milking cows. \u201cCows eat about 100 pounds a day, and what goes in, comes out,\u201d she says. \u201cWe have these little robots that are like poop Roombas, that go around and keep the floors nice and clean for the cows.\u201d<\/p>\n

They also have misters and tunnel ventilation to keep the cows cool in summer, and there are sensors that turn on the mist if it gets too warm. \u201cThere\u2019s also a big, giant claw machine, and it mixes and puts out feed to the cows, and it goes out about every other hour to see how the food is doing,\u201d says Anna.<\/p>\n

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Hinchley cows <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The cows each have sensors so that the Hinchleys can check their vitals. The sensors also are activated when the cows are milked by the milking robot, and it keeps track of how much milk they\u2019re producing. \u201cIt gives us a huge amount of information so we can manage them better,\u201d Tina says. \u201cWe can see who the girls are who need extra attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

The farm has also switched over to a new system, which alerts them if a cow is ready to give birth or if she is having a problem before or after birth. \u201cHaving technology doesn\u2019t mean we leave them alone,\u201d Tina explains. \u201cWe have to keep an eye on the girls. It\u2019s an office full of women and sometimes they\u2019re not so nice to each other, and if we separate them, we do it because no one likes to be bullied.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Milking Robots at Marieke Gouda<\/h2>\n
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Marieke Gouda<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These innovations don\u2019t just help the cows or increase milk production. \u201cThese innovations not only make it easier on the cow, but on the dairy farmer,\u201d says Marieke Penterman, who owns Marieke Gouda<\/a>, an award-winning farmstead creamery and dairy with her husband Rolf. \u201cThis is saving a lot of dairy farms and making it more interesting for the next generation to take over. If these dairy farmers don\u2019t have someone to take over the dairy farm, it\u2019s going to be really devastating on our kitchen table.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Quality of Life Improvements for All<\/h2>\n
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Marieke’s cow spa<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Penterman, whose farm has about 400 cows, grew up on a dairy farm in the Netherlands. \u201cMy parents never went on a vacation, and then you have the responsibility of milking twice or three times a day, and you have to feed the cows, rain, shine, snow or freezing rain.\u201d Penterman\u2019s farm is vastly different from the one she grew up on. \u201cWe call the barn the cow spa,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

When the cows come into be milked, the system immediately recognizes each cow. \u201cWe milk them separately, but once we had a cow who was super happy and hyper and jumped over the gate, and the system recognized her,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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Cows at Marieke Gouda<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The new technology makes the milking and care of the cows less labor-intensive, which not only is better for the farmers\u2019 health, but it also allows farmers to take time off and go on vacations more easily.<\/p>\n

On the cheese side of things, Penterman has also upgraded the technology. \u201cI cannot tell you what a relief it is to have two cheese vats, and the biggest improvement is our drain table and our cheese press,\u201d she says. \u201cI have an awesome production crew, but it was so hard on our wrists because we had to flip the cheese, but now, we don\u2019t have to flip the cheese during pressing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The technology continues to change and grow, and more farmers are investing in technology. \u201cOne of the next things we\u2019re considering is possibly getting some music so the cows can enjoy it,\u201d Tina says. \u201cOur (technology supplier) is booked out for the next two years for building out farms.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: We previously shared a story about how robots are being used in making cheese, today we share how robots are being used in the dairy with cows. Tina and Anna Hinchley Happy and healthy cows produce more milk. And technology and robots keep cows happier and healthier. \u201cSome of the girls (cows) will … Okumaya devam et “How Robots are Improving Life for Dairy Cows & Farmers”<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1271,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[395],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-milk-and-diary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}