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Tip of the Month – January 2024

Replace milk filter?

Sequence:  Press the yellow button, then wash your hands. If they are clean, the button will now light up and the filter can be replaced.
Or turn the green button on Duofilter.
Replacing the milk filter with clean hands ensures that the outside of the filter remains very clean. And that’s “the tank milk side!”

It is useful if there is a water hose nearby so that you can easily rinse the edges and thread + knob around the filter canister. When it’s easy, it always happens. And that is necessary because the edges and button must also remain clean.

Tip of the Month – December 2023

How quickly do your heifers get over three milkings?

It is very important, and also significant, that your heifers quickly reach more than 3 milkings per day after calving.

You can see this under “Animal” and then click on the Lactation Overview under Herd Charts. For this overview on the right, only check the two checkboxes for the milkings, see picture.

If all goes well, older cows that are already familiar with the robot will have over three milkings per day within a week.

Heifers still have to learn it and so it can take longer.
The sooner they are above 3 milkings, the better.
That depends, among other things, on this:

  • How healthy and vital are they after calving?
  • How soon after calving do you bring them to the robot?
  • How much time do you put into learning
  • What is the occupancy rate at the robot(s)?
  • How much space is there around the entrance of the robot, can they access it if older cows are also walking around in the (waiting) area in front of the robot?

Tip of the Month – November 2023

Daily cleaning, also slides.

Daily cleaning and checking of the milk cups, hoses and teat clean cup also includes rinsing / brushing and checking the slides, the guides, along which the milk hoses are pulled up and down.
Dirt also easily accumulates here, making it increasingly difficult for the robotarm to get the cups  to the right place.
This can easily cause incomplete milkings!
And of course, keep track of the rubber flap that always catches the milk cups.

Cleaning the camera?
Technician’s tip: Fold up a piece of kitchen roll the size of the camera glass, soak it with a little acid and “stick” it to the glass, let it sit for 2 – 3 minutes, then wipe off and rinse the camera well.

Tip of the Month – October 2023

Clean teat liners.

When the milking robot is on a flat floor and there is no pit for it, for example, it sometimes happens that during the back-flush, which is the rinse after each milking, the teat cups, or actually teat liners, touch the ground.

That place cannot always be kept clean all day and night, so it is not very hygienic.

A solution is to put something simple here that ensures that the teat cups do not touch the ground and that is easy to keep clean.

Tip of the Month – September 2023

Teach heifers for calving barn system and routes?

Especially with controlled cow traffic, it can be useful to get the heifers before calving used to the routes, habits and rations in the barn with dairy cattle.
But if, for example, they are already fed in the milking robot, they will be even more frightened by the robot arm after calving, with the result that they are more reluctant to visit the robot during the first few days.

So learning the routes and any selection gates is enough.

Take them out of the dairy group at least two weeks before calving, then they should be able to prepare for calving in peace, preferably in a straw pen / calving area, and not have to worry about bossy cows in the dairy group.