Managing herd health is an on-going responsibility for dairy farmers requiring labor, specialized knowledge and constant vigilance. Udder care, in particular, can be time consuming and have a significant impact on milk yields and herd health. Advancements in robotic technology and data gathering software like the Lely Horizon farm management system now afford dairy farmers an unprecedented level of detail and unique opportunities to manage udder health by exception, rather than addressing their herd as a whole and waiting for symptoms to become widespread or chronic. Dairies using Lely automated dairy systems are able to detect, treat, and resolve udder health concerns in a fundamentally different way than conventional dairies.
DIFFERENCES FROM CONVENTIONAL SYSTEMS
Traditional milking parlors primarily rely on external manual and visual inspection of the udder, opening a door for critical and valuable health indicators to go unnoticed. Additionally, milk testing in conventional systems typically requires gathering multiple samples, working with a veterinarian and a waiting period, in which detrimental health conditions may advance. These limitations invariably lead to addressing herd health as a whole and a slower response time when compared to robotic systems like the Lely Astronaut A5 robotic milking system.
Lely automated dairy systems, on the other hand, address each cow as an individual, providing a wealth of valuable data, all the way down to the quarter. The Lely Astronaut A5 provides producers the ability to monitor health and yield quality variables such as milk temperature, color, conductivity, flow rate and even somatic cell count. Combined with the ability to adjust take off settings for the milking cups as well as vacuum and pulsation rates, data aggregated by automated systems enables a farmer to discover and head off potentially debilitating cases of mastitis before a cow’s health is impacted and before conditions spread to the herd. This concept is referred to as “managing by exception” and is most effective in automated milking operations. This practice can even reduce the instance of bi-modal milking events, leading to happier, healthier cows and more consistent, higher quality yields.
Another difference in robotic dairies affecting udder and teat health is milking cadence. With robots, cows are free to be milked whenever the pre-set parameters allow them to do so by either by minimum amount of milkings or an expected milk production. While visits to the robot may seem “uneven” compared to traditional parlors, the cow experiences reduced stress and greater freedom of movement, potentially resulting in higher yields after cows acclimate to automated systems. In traditional parlors where cows are milked on a set schedule regardless of readiness or cow handling, over or under milking can lead to an increase in udder and teat problems and bi-modal milking events can be more frequent.
MANAGING TEAT HEALTH
Analyzing trends in udder health is only one of the advantages offered by Lely automated dairy systems. Another is the ability to treat the udder and teats proactively and reliably, preventing mastitis and other acute conditions before they have the chance to occur. This is achieved through multiple steps. Lely Astronaut A5 
incorporates cleaning brushes and differing varieties of sprays to treat the udder and teats pre and post milking. For example, it first uses a system of lasers and 3D-cameras to determine the position of each teat, then clean the length of each teat and underside of the udder with rotating brushes before applying and applying milking cups which have unique vacuum and pulsation settings for each quarter. This level of specificity and granularity ensures that once milking is over, the milking cup automatically detaches, preventing damage to the teat end which can lead to bacterial infection and mastitis. After a successful milking the teat end remains open for 20 to 30 minutes in which bacteria has an opportunity to enter. To prevent this, the Lely Astronaut A5 ensures a uniform spray of disinfectant, reducing the amount of bacteria as the teat end closes naturally.
This approach can also be easily customized in Lely Horizon to account for seasonality. For example, in the summer when warm temperatures encourage natural bacterial growth, the robot’s post spray choice may reflect a higher propensity to killing bacteria. In the winter, bacterial growth is subdued by cold temperatures but lower humidity can lead to dry teat conditions. In this case the robot’s post spray can be outfitted with a higher conditioning solution ensuring teats remain healthy, moisturized and ready for milking.
MAINTAINING UDDER HEALTH IN ROBOTICALLY MILKED HERDS
Even with an ocean of data and efficient Lely robots to reliably perform preventative care, the farmer still plays a critical role in maintaining udder health in their herd. Consistent monitoring and regular maintenance of robotic systems is crucial to ensuring smooth operations and healthy cows. Wear parts on the Lely Astronaut A5 are easily serviceable by the farmer on a regular schedule. However, a partnership with a local Lely Center can provide farmers with Farm Management Support advisors and regularly scheduled on-site visits from their Technical Service Supportteam specially certified by Lely to determine if certain components are working as they should. They may graph pulsators, perform dynamic milk testing, run vacuum capacity tests and even perform teat end scoring to determine keratosis levels. Overall, effective maintenance of the milking robots is a continuous partnership between the farmer and their equipment supplier.
CONCLUSION
Udder and teat care in an automated dairy has a different rhythm than it’s traditional counterpart. While still requiring vigilance, monitoring and maintenance, with Lely automated dairy systems the farmer has far greater visibility into the health of their herd, can react quicker to problems that arise and are armed with a wider range of tools to prevent them before they happen.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}