Many dairy farms are facing the challenge of further automating workflows in conventional milking parlors, without having to replace existing installations.
At the same time, the importance of a consistent milking routine, high milk quality, and excellent hygiene continues to grow.
At this year's EuroTier, GEA introduced DairyProX, a semi-automated milking system developed for conventional milking parlors.
While operators continue to attach the teat cups manually, GEA’s In-Liner-Everything technology can automate multiple steps of the milking routine directly inside the teat cup.
GEA’s In-Liner Everything technology has already proven itself in GEA’s fully automatic milking systems.
While the milking unit is attached manually in DairyProX systems, In-Liner Everything takes over large parts of the routine directly inside the teat cup automatically.
This can include stimulation, teat cleaning, dipping procedures and milking processes as well as backflushing of the teat cups.
The automated milking routine supports consistent milking quality and hygiene, regardless of individual differences in manual execution.
Consistent stimulation and udder preparation can also promote milk flow while supporting udder health and teat condition.
For farms looking to further automate their operations, DairyProX helps establish a more consistent milking routine while making processes more standardised and reproducible.
Initial experience from pilot farms in the US indicate GEA DairyProX has the potential to improve the performance of conventional milking systems in several key areas.
With the new system, pilot farms were able to nearly halve labor requirements in the parlor while milking more than one-third more cows in the same parlor.
The pilot data also indicate shorter overall milking times, a reduction in somatic cell count of up to 30 percent, and a slight decline in mastitis cases.
These results support the farms’ original objectives of reducing labour requirements, maintaining or increasing cow throughput, and improving milk quality metrics.
Experience gained from U.S. pilot farms and the market launch in North America will provide GEA with a practical foundation for evaluating how semi-automated milking can be further developed for additional milking systems and regions around the world.
DairyProX is not currently available in Australia.