Michigan State University has opened an experimental dairy with the latest technology, including two robotic milking machines made by Maassluis, Netherlands-based Lely Group. Robot milking operations have long been in use in Europe but spread only slowly in the U.S. Part of the new dairy is also pastured-based paddocks. Financing for the 94-cow dairy at MSU’s W.K. Kellogg Biological Station came from a $3.5 million 2007 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, along with university funds.
The best news? The dairy is open to the public! About 1,200 people toured the dairy Wednesday, when it was opened to the public for the first time. Along with the self-milking system, visitors saw such cow-friendly features as in-pen water beds, rotary back scratchers and automatic manure scrapers. To save energy, the barn has curtains along its side walls that are raised or lowered to control the temperature. It also was designed to make maximum use of natural light, cutting the electric bill.
“The robotic milking machine will measure the cow’s body weight, eating behavior, milking time per quarter, total and quarter milk yield and milk quality. The farmer gets a lot of information that can be used to make management decisions. Cows … come and go as they choose,” said Mat Haan, operations manager at the Michigan State dairy. “If a cow decides she wants to milk at two o’clock in the morning, she can, as opposed to the farmer bringing the whole herd together and working them through the parlor in one big group.”
The dairy is trying out practices and technology that could “help keep small and midrange family dairy farms in business,” Haan said. “It’s not going to happen at 1,000 or 2,000 animal operations.”
Equipment like the self-milking system can help reduce farmers’ labor costs, which is important when milk prices are low, as they have been in the past year.