Automatic Milking Systems KPI Project

To do so, the Dairy Unit established the 2015-16 Australian AMS KPI Project to monitor 9 farms on a monthly basis for a 12-month period (July 2015 to June 2016). Data collected helped capture the performance and productivity made possible under commercial AMS operations. To learn more, you can download the project guidelines PDF, 250.07 KB.

2015-16 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.

Other findings include:

• 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.

The project was expanded in 2016, with the establishment of the 2016-17 International AMS KPI Project. This aimed to compare and benchmark milk production, system utilisation, and farm demographic information of pasture-based AMS across different countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Chile.

2016-17 Project summary

In 2016-17, a total of 19 farms were 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.

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.

More information

For more information, contact the Dairy Unit dairy@dpird.nsw.gov.au or visit our team's page.