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A well functioning barn is essential for the success of any automatic milking system. Cows must be able to milk regularly at any time of the day or night – while having good access to the feeding and resting areas. There are many ways to plan a robotic barn’s cow traffic, from free or semi-free to guided and feed first options. DeLaval is there to give you the best advice on which of these cow traffic solutions best suits the way you want to work. Any traffic configuration works with DeLaval VMS.
Your satisfaction depends on what you expect from your automatic milking system. DeLaval will help you define your expectations so the barn planning meets your goals. The reason so many DeLaval VMS users are happy with their system is that we spend time helping ensure the whole system is planned to meet your precise productivity, animal welfare, reduced labour and quality of life expectations.
Free cow traffic is the most basic option. No gates are required and cows are free to go anywhere in the barn whenever they want to. The downside is that cows will use-up precious system capacity by entering the robot without milking permission. Worse, research proves that more cows (up to 10 percent late for milking) need to be manually pushed twice or three times a day through the robot. This labour costs you time and it has a detrimental effect on your cows because the milking intervals are not regular. Regular milking intervals are critical for high milk quality and yield. On the positive side, free cow traffic virtually requires no extra investment – as long as you can cope with the disadvantages.
Robot users have been asking for better systems to maximize the performance of their automatic milking systems and DeLaval has listened. Combining long industry experience and our closeness with farmers, we invented alternative cow traffic concepts to meet your goals more effectively. The latest DeLaval development in this field is called feed first. This method of barn planning is now an extremely popular alternative worldwide.
- Free access to the feeding area for optimum feed intake
- More regular milking intervals for higher milk yields and lower SCC
- Milking permission controlled every two to three hours
- Almost no cows to fetch, for reduced labour demands
- Maximized DeLaval VMS milking capacity
- Less cow stress due to almost no cow fetching
- Early indicator of cow health risks
Farmers using the feed first routine find that the few cows left to fetch are generally in need of special health attention. Proven both in university research and on real farms, feed first cow traffic is fast becoming the preferred barn layout and a positive alternative to free cow traffic.
With DeLaval SSG, barn traffic can be managed to help cows reach their top performance and reduce your labour inputs.
DeLaval SSG is designed to be your round-the-clock cow traffic assistant, so your herd achieves its full potential and you do too.
There is more to an automatic milking barn than the robot and DeLaval knows that. A well functioning barn is essential for the success of your plans. Professional barn planning can reward you with high herd performance and reduced labour requirements.
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