The evolution of the Canadian Dairy XPO continued last week as the Stratford, Ontario-based dairy industry event moved to April and unveiled its new We Cover Cow Coliseum. General Manager Jordon Underhill was joined by a host of stakeholders for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially open the permanent 440′ x 72′ Cow Coliseum located on… Read More
Category: Milking Equipment and Tech
They’ve built it, now it’s time to come. With the 2016 Canadian Dairy XPO just two weeks away, show organizers are getting ready to unveil the new WeCover Cow Coliseum and pedestrian bridge that will connect the building to the Stratford Rotary Complex. The steel bridge will carry the more than 15,000 visitors expected to… Read More
Cows aren’t the only creatures that need to be trained to use a dairy robot. The value a dairy farm gets out of an automated system depends on all the people involved knowing how to utilize the machine’s capabilities. “That robot is doing nothing more than milking your cows,” explains Ben Smink of Lely North America… Read More
North America’s first dairy milk robot was installed in 1999, less than 50 kilometres from Jack Rodenburg’s Woodstock, Ontario office. The long-time OMAFRA dairy specialist was sceptical at first, but he quickly realized that robot technology could revolutionize Canadian dairy farms. He says early models had their issues, but he quickly realized the potential for… Read More
Are you getting the most out of your robot milkers? The recipe for success includes a combination of technical savvy and good herd management skills. Earlier this month at the World Dairy Expo, RealAgriculture talked with DeLaval Robot Academy instructors Ryan Weis and Lizzy French. The Academy, based in Madison, Wisconsin, offers a two-and-a-half day… Read More
Dairy farmers are currently employing 34,000 robots around the globe and manufacturer DeLaval expects that number will double in the next five years. Since robots began appearing on farms in the 1990s, most have been confined to smaller farms throughout Europe, including Germany, France and the Netherlands. Canada currently sits sixth in the ranking of… Read More
As if an automated feed-pusher and barn-cleaner weren’t cool enough, Lely has announced a control panel option for the iOS platform, in addition to its Android-based app. Farmers with a Lely Juno feed pusher and/or Lely Discovery mobile barn cleaner will now be able to operate these robots with an iPhone, iPad or iPod through… Read More
What if you could get a two- or three-day notice on a dairy cow going into heat? Or be alerted to an impending infection or sickness days before a cow showed signs? As Nancy Charlton, with DeLaval, explains in this interview from the Canadian Dairy Xpo, the Herd Navigator software can do just that. The… Read More