The Michigan State University (MSU) W.K. Kellogg Biological Station in Hickory Corners is an innovative mechanical dairy farm that is expected to help the new generation of dairy farmers improve productivity.
According to excerpts from the article:
A former volunteer docent at the Kellogg Biological Station, Aylene Goddard, a 91-year-old Kalamazoo resident, said she was "very impressed" with the new system, which uses two robots to milk the farm's 100 lactating cows.
In a conventional dairy farming system all cows are milked at the same time, and the same number of times every day. With the new mechanical system, cows choose when to wander over to the milking robot when they want to be milked.
The system was introduced July 7 and each now yields an average of 70 pounds of milk a day, up from an average of 65 pounds a day before the transition.
"Since day one (milk yield has) steadily increased . . . so we think cow comfort is increasing," said Jackie Jacobs, an animal science graduate student studying animal behavior at MSU.
Read the entire article here.
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