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WORKING
TOGETHER
FOR A HEALTHIER FUTURE...
13
LIVESTOCK MATTERS
THE ROBOT EVENT
Martin Partington
GEA Technologies
Bas van Santan
Lely Atlantic
Setting up for a robotic installation
At the Robot Event, Bas van Santen of Lely Atlantic, and
Martin Partington of GEA Technologies outlined factors to
consider when designing buildings for automatic milking
systems, including the importance of controlling lameness.
Cows will socialise in groups of between
25 and 50, typically with four dominant
cows, of which one will be the overall
‘boss’ explained Martin. The natural
behaviour of the cow is to spend 14 hours
resting, and 5 hours eating, with the rest
of the time spent socialising and drinking.
In a robot system, around 80% of cows
should be lying down in the cubicles at
any one time.
And, as with any milking system, it was
important to reduce stress for the cows by
limiting changes made to groups, and
preventing overcrowding.
The spacing in passageways needed to be
wide enough to allow cows to pass each
other. To achieve this ‘free cow traffic’,
Bas recommended a minimum 3m distance
between cubicle rows and a minimum 4m
distance between cubicles and the feed
fence. Where water troughs were sited at
the end of the building, then passageways
needed to be at least 4m wide.
Robots need not only to be easily
accessible but also easily visible, so
cows can see if they are in use or not.
And there needed to be sufficient space
around the robot, to serve as a waiting
area for timid cows.
Shed design
Good foot health
Martin explained that lameness is caused
by a mixture of factors, and is estimated
to cost around £170/case when the
direct and indirect costs are taken
into account.
In robotic systems, foot health is especially
important as lame cows will not want to
get up and voluntarily walk to the robot.
Martin advised that in herds where
footbathing needed to be part of the
system, these should be 3m long and at
least 10cm (4inches) deep, so that the
whole foot could be covered. They needed
to be sited in well-lit areas, and either
placed for the cow to go through on exiting
the robot, or in the crossovers in the cattle
shed - in the latter case, all cows should be
moved through the bath once a week.
When installing a new footbath, farmers
should select a design which is easy to fill,
drain and clean.
A factor in protecting foot health was to
keep the passageways clear of slurry.
Automatic scrapers would reduce the
amount of slurry that cows had to stand in -
Martin advised that the rope was set into a
groove in the ground to minimise danger to
cows’ feet.