Automatic Milking Systems: 2015-16 Australian AMS KPI Project

The 2015-16 Australian AMS KPI Project provided the Dairy Industry with key information of what was achievable under commercial conditions. Information about milk production, AMS utilisation and farm demographics helped understand how these farms 'behaved' over a 12 month period.

Project summary

The 9 participating farms  in the 2015-16 Australian AMS KPI Project reflected a range of farming systems with different animal breeds and calving systems. The farms had either 3, 4 or 6 single box robots, whereas one farm had the robotic rotary.

On average over the 12 months, these farms were milking 195 cows and producing around 4,512 kg milk/day with a milk composition of 4.1% fat, 3.3% protein and a somatic cell count of 205,000 cells/ml.

Individual cows were milked 2.3 times/day, producing 24.1 kg milk/day and consuming an average of 6.4 kg concentrate/day.

In every milking visit, cows produced on average 10.4 kg milk and spent 6.3 min in the robot.

Per hour each individual robot was milking an average of 5 cows, ranging between 0 and 10 milkings/robot/hour.

Each individual robot performed an average of 120 milkings/day, operating for around 13.6 hours/day and harvesting 1,263 kg milk/day.

There was a wide range in farm performance, which highlights that it is the combination of farm system and farm management that determines the whole farm performance.

Project output data tables

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.