Worldwide Robotic Milking

Doyle Waybright of Mason Dixon Farms is back for a second episode. Doyle was a true pioneer, using voluntary robotic milking on his farm for 15 years, and he has put a lot of thought into batch milking. After their next expansion, his family farm will milk all of their 2500 cows in a rotary parlor. In this episode, Doyle shares his experience with robots and parlors, the potential he sees for batch milking on large dairies, and why it wasn’t a fit for Mason Dixon Farms today.

In this episode, Gareth and John visited with Doyle Waybright of Mason-Dixon farms. As Gareth said, "You really produced the blueprint for large herds from your own experiences.” Doyle told us about his barn, what worked, what didn't, why he is optimistic about robotics for large herds, and why he is not milking with robots anymore.

A footbath is an essential part of a robot barn. Too often it is an afterthought. In this episode, we discuss footbath locations and use, and the potential impact on cow traffic.

Jim Salfer from University of Minnesota Extension came back for a second episode. This time we focused on economic models he has created for profitability and labor efficiency.

Jim Salfer, from University of Minnesota Extension chatted with us about how we have gotten where we are. We talked about everything from his first robotic milking open house, through the early adapters, and the latest concepts. What drove the innovation then, and what keeps it going today?