2016-17 International AMS KPI Project
In early 2015 the NSW Department of Primary Industries in Australia identified the need to understand what levels of performance and productivity are achievable under commercial AMS operations. Therefore, the 2015-16 Australian AMS KPI Project was established in July 2015 and 9 farms were monitored on a monthly basis for a 12 month period (July 2015 to June 2016).
The 2016-17 International AMS KPI Project has the aim of comparing and benchmarking milk production, system utilisation and farm demographic information of pasture-based AMS in different countries (such as Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Chile).
Progress summary
June 2017
So far, a total of 19 farms are being monitored: 12 from Australia, 2 from New Zealand, 4 from Ireland and 1 from Chile. They reflect a range of farming systems with different animal breeds and calving systems. The farms have either 1, 2, 3, 4 or 6 single box robots, whereas one farm has the robotic rotary.
In June, on average these farms were milking 161 cows and producing around 3,479 kg milk/day with a milk composition of 4.3% fat, 3.5% protein and a somatic cell count of 165,000 cells/ml.
Individual cows were milked 2.1 times/day, producing 22.9 kg milk/day and consuming an average of 5.1 kg concentrate/day.
In every milking visit, cows produced on average 10.7 kg milk and spent 6.9 min in the robot.
Each individual robot performed an average of 106 milkings/day, operating for around 12.88 hours/day and harvesting 1,122 kg milk/day.
Project output data tables
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More information
Dr. Nicolas Lyons (Development Officer Robotic Milking Systems)
Email: nicolas.lyons@dpi.nsw.gov.au / Mobile: 0401 650 073
Disclaimer
The whole farming system should be taken into consideration recognising that farm management practices have an impact on several key performance indicators. It is also true that circumstances of every aspect of the operation influence the management decisions made on farm which then influence the key performance indicators of the operations.
Acknowledgments
Prepared by Dr. Nicolas Lyons (Development Officer Robotic Milking Systems, NSW Department of Primary Industries). The author would also like to recognise the valuable input of participating AMS Farmers.
