Search

Milk production is the most important branch of German agriculture and the German dairy industry is the largest sector within the German food industry. For about a quarter of agricultural farms in Germany, milk production is the main source of income. The productive and economic quality of the dairy cattle farm depends crucially on the efficient, cost-optimized and quality-oriented milking technique. In the last 20 years, automatic milking has become increasingly popular among dairy cattle farms in Germany. For a long time, the main target group was medium-sized family farms with 60 to 180 cows. Meanwhile, there is also appropriate technology for large farms that can milk more than 4000 cows. The study will show which technique of automatic milking is suitable for which type of farm and its impact on the organization and management of the farms. Additionally, the effect on the farm manager, herd manager and milker but also on their families will be presented. Also, the effect on the cows and the changes in the cow's human relationship is analysed. An overview of the survey shows that family farms between 60 and 180 cows are best at dealing with single box systems and free milking. Large companies with external workers often use automatic milking carts with fixed milking times, as this has organizational advantages in group management. In medium-sized farms between 180 and 500 dairy cows, solutions with several milking robots in individual boxes as well as automatic group milking systems can be found. Both systems have their organizational advantages and disadvantages. In summary, automatic milking has meanwhile reached all company sizes and types. Automatic milking not only has an effect on milking during operation. It is usually the beginning of a further automation of the operation. Due to the lack of contact between man and cow during milking, more information about the cow is transmitted via sensors.

In consequence of increasing workloads and the pressure to rationalize the workload in combination with increasing quality requirements of consumers, German dairy farms often invest in automation of single production processes. However, these automatic mechatronic systems are limited in their potential. As the more and more intelligent systems are not able to communicate among themselves. In this context, the approach of a cyber-physical system leads to new possibilities of product and process quality. The connection of all/several mechatronic subsystems causes to a more flexible production process which can adjust and optimise the production regarding external influences to the system. This results in an reduction of workload, automatic documentation and traceability of the product during the production process. Risks arise from the system itself. Hence, an appropriate user interface is necessary to control the system. For this, the farmer must be able to define boundaries in which the system can run on its own and where human authorisation is necessary.