Milk quality and robotic milking systems

It should come as no surprise that cows are cows, and no matter how they’re milked, the same rules governing cleanliness and hygiene apply.

That lesson was brought home last month at the National Mastitis Council, where Don Anderson, with Quality Milk Management, New Brunswick, Canada, compared milk quality in robot- versus conventionally-milked herds.

The first robotic milking system in North America was installed in Canada in 1999. Since then, about 1,300 Canadian dairy farms have installed Automated Milking System (AMS) technology, or about one in eight Canadian dairy farms.

After nearly 20 years of experience, Anderson says what is true of conventional milking systems is doubly true of AMS milking:

• Cows must be clean; the margin for error is small.
• Milking equipment maintenance and analysis are critical.
• Farmers with AMS must utilize all existing milk quality tools.

At first blush, it appears AMS milk quality is as good as conventionally milked herds. Somatic cell counts (SCCs) are appreciably no different. Conventionally milked Canadian herds are averaging 228,000 cells/mL while Canadian AMS herds average 231,000 cells/mL. The story is much the same when the data is broken down by province, see table.

But there have been some milk quality concerns raised at the provincial level. “[In Ontario], there has been a significant number of high bacteria counts on AMS farms, as well as elevated freezing point and a slightly higher number of (antibiotic) inhibitor infractions,” says Anderson.