Milking

Milking Cows

Recently I heard about an automated system for milking cows.

The machine is effectively self-operated by the cow - she walks into the milking bay, when she wants, the machine attaches itself to her udders and the milk is taken from her.

The interesting thing that has been discovered (accidentally) is that cows using this system are actually producing more milk.

Firstly - I think they are producing more milk using this system because it mimics nature - calves after all do not feed twice a day at the same time each day.

Calves feed as and when they need to - and the cow produces milk to supply this need. The new machine returns the cow to this more natural rhythm - perhaps she even regards the machine as a calf which she needs to feed? (Somewhat touching thought if that is the case).

Anyway two things occur to me regarding this innovative machine.

1) Many criticise farmers for taking away calves from their mothers when they are at a very young age. Maybe with this machine a cow might produce milk for the calve and still have plenty of milk for the farmer?

2) If this machine is truly mimicking nature - then perhaps cows may continue in milk for longer than the single year? So the necessity of having them calve each year might be taken away? Might it be worth testing this possibility?

My thanks to BBC`s Countryfile for bringing the machine to my attention - hopefully the technology will get cheaper and bring it within more farmers reach - and maybe a fully outdoors/field model will at some point be available.

(P.S. If Google put a spam blog warning on this post - apologies, seems to be a standard thing when you start a new blog)