I wrote a profile of a nearby dairy farm that has installed robot milkers: “With a combination of hydraulics, lasers, electronics and suction, the $420,000 setup determines which cow has entered the stall to feed via the RFID chip hanging around her neck, cleans the teats twice with little brushes that look like they came from a Matchbox car wash, attaches nozzles and drains 8 or 9 gallons of milk that gets pumped to various places depending on factors such as whether the cow is on antibiotics. Then the cow – mostly Holsteins plus an occasional Jersey and Brown Swiss that Fitch likes because they’re “something different to look at” – is free to wander back to the barn.”
You should check out the story (here) to see Geoff Forester’s photos.
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