Performance and profitability of pasture-based Automatic Milking Systems

We invited Juan Gargiulo to present his research in Performance and profitability of pasture-based Automatic Milking Systems. This is the first research on the economics of pasture-based AMS which utilises comprehensive commercial farm data and is not based on simulations. The research was conducted as part of Milking Edge an #ausdairy project by @nswdpi @Dairy_Australia.

Combining pasture with AMS will become more important in the future, particularly where cows must be on pasture, at least during the summer period. Learning how to manage pasture-based AMS for higher profitability is key to be an attractive system, offering high flexibility and less hard work.

The key messages from the research study:
1. Overall performance and profitability of AMS was similar to CMS, despite some costs being different
2. Some of the potential benefits have not been achieved yet
3. Potential to improve productivity and make the technology more profitable and attractive
4. Milk harvested per robot is the most important KPI with highest association to profitability
5. Increasing the number of cows per robot is one of the most important factors to increase milk harvested per robot.

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