COWS in robotic dairies are quieter, and react less to humans, according to a new study.
PhD candidate Ashleigh Wildridge, based at the University of Sydney Dairy Research Foundation at Camden, south west of Sydney tested anecdotal evidence that dairy cattle were quieter in automatic milking system.
“In a handling test, we drafted the 70 cows and the farmer put them through a gate one at a time,” Ms Wildridge said.
“We observed the fact that the cows had significantly reduced stress responses after they had transitioned to the automatic milking systems.”
There are about 40 robotic dairy farms in Australia (and 250 cows), which use an average of four single-box robotic milkers each. Uptake of automated systems is growing slowly.
Ms Wildridge said automated systems reduced the time farmers spent on milking duties and allowed them to carry out other valuable on-farm duties.
She investigated four pasture-based and one indoor dairy transitioning from conventional to automatic milking in Victoria, Tasmania and NSW.
Ms Wildridge spent three days observing and recording farmer routines. She randomly selected 70 lactating cows and painted them with a mark to identify them in testing of flight distance and handling.
She found that as cows became quieter in automated dairies there was significant reduction in their fear of humans, which meant handlers needed to become more assertive.
“As the study progressed and the cows transitioned to automatic milking, I noted that farmers had had to become more vocal to get their cows to move,” she said.
The ‘flight distance’ of the cows, the distance at which they take fright from human proximity, had decreased under an automated milking system.
“There had been a significant reduction in the animals’ fear of humans.”