A New Dairy Control and Management System in the Automatic Milking Farm: Basic Concepts and Components

Abstract

The introduction of automatic milking technology, including on-line individual data acquisition and processing, requires adaptation of dairy management methods. Automatic milking systems allow the individual cow to be milked and fed according to her production performance and potential to achieve maximal profits with minimal resources. Because the farmer is not actually present each time a milking or feeding decision is needed, a new generation of control and management systems has been designed to assume the short-term dairy management and operational control. The overall management control still remains with the farmer or herdsperson, who is supported by the dairy control and management system. The paper discusses the influence on dairy management of the integration of the individual automatic milking and feeding systems. Then, the concept of a dairy control and management system, which includes a decision support and expert system, is described. A prototype, which enables automatic milking and feeding routines, was developed and tested.