VMS robotic milking system

The remarkable DeLaval VMS robotic milking system exploits a cow’s natural behaviour cycle of feeding, resting and ruminating, and is built around the fact that each cow decides when she wants to feed and this coincides with the cow's milking intervals. It quite literally has the potential to revolutionise milking practice, increasing yields, freeing-up a lot of time for the farmer and enabling better herd management.

As a cow is returning to its rest area after feeding it decides to pass through an automatic gate where its identity is read from its collar by the system. If that particular cow has only recently been milked it is allowed to return to the resting area, but if it is eight hours since the last milking, or if the computer uses its stored data on the animal to calculate that it is holding eight kilos of milk, then it is diverted to the VMS milking pen.

Here a gate keeps the cows in a holding area until the milking pen is free, and then admits them one at a time. As soon as the cow is comfortably in the pen a portion of palatable ‘candy’ is dispensed in the robot manger to keep the cow occupied during the milking process.

Now the system’s advanced robotic arm comes into action. Unlike other robotic systems the DeLaval arm is hydraulically powered (not pneumatic) which delivers high reliability and reduced servicing. It is fast, quiet, robust and gentle, and its repetitive procedures are consistent too – just as the cows
like it.

Each teat is individually cleaned with warm water and air, then stimulated, pre-milked and dried before milking. Only a few seconds are needed for optimum teat sanitation which results in high milk quality and better milking capacity.

The teat preparation cup has its own separate line so no dirty pre-milk ever makes contact with the main milk line. Then, using a camera coupled to dual lasers, the arm locates the teats, attaches the teat cups, re-attaches if needed, aligns the milk tube and sprays the teats after milking. Truly incredible!

Controlling the milking is fast and intuitive thanks to a touch-screen interface. Having identified the cow, the system displays milking performance for each udder quarter, recording time, yield, flow, conductivity and blood. The system’s management software also provides instant information on the status of each cow, alerting the farmer to anything that requires attention.

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