A New Zealand designed and built robotic system is set to transform dairy-herd testing in this country.<\/p>\n
LIC machine testing milk samples. Photo: Supplied \/ LIC<\/p>\n
Herd improvement co-operative, LIC, collects about 11 million milk samples from farms every year and until now the samples have been manually tested.<\/p>\n
The tests, carried out four times a year on farms help farmers judge the performance of each cow and also test the disease status of each animal.<\/p>\n
LIC has been doing the work for the last 50 years.<\/p>\n
This has involved a team of about 70 people who manually weighed each sample of milk and then took a small sub-sample which was then analysed in the lab.<\/p>\n
It has now installed machines to automate the weighing and sampling process at its Hamilton and Christchurch laboratories.<\/p>\n
The custom designed machines have been developed over the last three years by LIC staff and Intellitech Automation.<\/p>\n
Chief executive Wayne McNee said LIC has been trying to automate the process for many years.<\/p>\n
He said robotic testing is both quicker and more accurate and that the machines do not spill or contaminate samples.<\/p>\n
Mr McNee said five robotic machines will be working, while cows are being milked during the season running from July through to April.<\/p>\n
He said the main benefit for farmers is a more efficient operation.<\/p>\n
LIC has invested $3.2m in developing the machines and it expects to pay the cost off within two years with the savings made.<\/p>\n
Mr McNee said seasonal staff will not now be required to do the testing.<\/p>\n
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Robotics to transform dairy herd testing - RNZ<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A New Zealand designed and built robotic system is set to transform dairy-herd testing in this country. Continue reading