In what New South Wales Department of Primary Industries is calling a world-first, the department has launched an AMS Integrated Management Model (IMM) tool to assist farmers when using automatic milking systems (AMS).
The IMM project, Milking Edge, is aimed at supporting dairy farmers to consider, invest and install AMS. The IMM provide farmers with a greater understanding of the system and its performance and therefore helps minimise risk and maximise seamless transitioning to robotic milking.
The project is led by DPI Leader Dairy Dr Nicolas Lyons in collaboration with Dairy Australia and DeLaval. Lyons said the tool has a user-friendly online interface which farmers can use to optimise their AMS.
“It is a world-first decision support tool for pasture-based AMS that integrates commercial farm data obtained across multiple locations and years,” said Lyons.
Created by DPI development officer Juan Gargiulo, the tool incorporates five years of physical and economic data from various commercial farms in Australia and overseas which utilise AMS.
Garguilo said the tool allows for data comparison between key performance insights.
“It can also be used to identify ways to optimise performance by targeting higher litres of milk per robot, a key driver of farm profitability.
“The tool has been tested by farmers using AMS from Australia, Ireland and New Zealand with extremely positive and encouraging results, with most farmers valuing this tool and considering it to be useful and easy to use,” he said
