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I was intrigued so I did some research, apparently the “laser guided milker” is one of these [1]. The operation must have been a significant capital expenditure

I was intrigued so I did some research, apparently the “laser guided milker” is one of these [1]. The operation must have been a significant capital expenditure to start. Surely there’s down time or equipment failure that requires traditional milking equipment to be available. Cows must be milked twice a day or bacterial infections can occur. Milking a large herd by hand is quite labor intensive. Note how polite the cows in the video are, to not piss and shit in the stall and all over the equipment, nor kick, breaking the equipment or arms. I grew up milking and shoveling manure on a small family dairy farm. It wasn’t a bad life, just all consuming, morning and night, 365 days a year. I suppose my father had a similar goal going back to the land. That’s how he’d been raised. Looking back I’m sure he was more than little disappointed how quickly my siblings and I left, and how little interest any of us expressed in taking it on. He eventually sold the herd and most of the land. [1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tdD5LncaJ-8 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tdD5LncaJ-8

phillc73 8y ago
That's a pretty interesting machine, but as you point out far too clean! I also noticed that the cow's teats weren't sprayed or dipped with iodine solution post-milking to prevent mastitis. Each cow should also be inspected pre-milking for mastitis, cut or damaged teats etc, and the milk diverted away from the main vat. I think there would still be requirement for human input and monitoring even with this machine. The other thing is this machine seemed quite slow to attach to the teats. Generally, you'd want to get the cows back on the pasture quickly. This system would take half a day to milk any decent sized herd.