Robotics are the way ahead

Beverley: Robotics are the way ahead in farming, claimed Max Perris at the Geo-Agriculture conference today. Production costs would be reduced, yields would go up and less labour would be needed, although he admitted that there would be new risks. There were big upfront costs.

He referred to a system where robot Tom looked after the soil, Dick was concerned with feeding and Harry with planting. Wilma was the brains of the operation, telling the robots what to do and when to do and making sure that they did what was needed.

Robotic milking could take half the time of conventional methods. In barn cameras could be linked to GPS so one could observe the movements of the stock (sounds like Animal Farm made real to me). Drone surveillance could monitor the temperature of animals.

I put it to him that the combination of expensive kit in the fields and fewer staff around sounded like an invitation to criminals when we have a rural security crisis. He admitted there were cyber attack risks. However, he argued that robots would take over the repetitive work, leaving staff to undertake more creative interventions to improve yields.

What are the pros and cons of robotic milking?

Some dairy farmers see this as a way of 'Brexit proofing' their businesses. Between 900 and 1,000 UK herds are now using the technology or around one in ten of all herds. It is. however, a relatively expensive solution and one more appropriate to larger units. It requires a different style of working and presents new animal welfare challenges.

As far as cost is concerned, a farmer would need one unit per 55 low yield milkers. Each unit costs £100k - £120k and a new shed may be needed as well. So a farm with 100 milkers, not a particularly large farm by today's standards, would need to invest £300k. This would be spread over 15-20 years with bank borrowing, but units typically have a life of 10-15 years.

EU productivity grants have been available which cover 40 per cent of the capital cost, but I am uncertain whether these would be available after Brexit, although they would be consistent with a technology oriented investment strategy. No one knows what will happen to the milk price over the next decade, but I would be surprised if it went up in real terms.

With a robotic unit the cow is typically asked to find her own way to the milking unit and milk herself. This necessitates training for the herd person and the cow. It is important that there are no obstacles in the way of the cow, hence the need for a new shed in many cases. The cow will need access several times a day during an unhindered and uncomplicated route.

Staff need to be available 24/7 as the units send out alerts if there is any kind of problem and they need to be able to sort out software glitches. We all know how IT problems can drive us crazy, especially in the early hours of the morning. Staff need to learn new skills.

It does imply a new way of working with less repetitive work: being in a traditional herring bone parlour with cows urinating in all directions can be challenging. However, farmers need to think through how well they would adapt to this new technology and about its impact on impact on animal welfare, potentially positive but with new challenges.