@B&B Happy goats ; all the reasons you listed are some of the reasons dairies have gone to robots. The biggest reason.... no one wants to milk cows. As in hired help. Take the average salary of a hired milker here in Va. $25,000 to 30,000 per year. Plus housing and usually the electric is paid for. Gets them up to 35,000. Then insurance for many. Then add in days off. Then sick days... and do you really want to get up and go milk cows 12 out of 14 days @ 2or 3 a.m.? Most work 12 on 2 off, some get one day a week off.
Then look at wages that have not kept up with what companies pay in the "normal" working sector. And they get every weekend off... or the equivalent.
And you are out there in all kinds of weather... just like the "polar vortex" and the hot 100 degree days in Tx; at all hours. That is one of the reasons so many dairies have gone to Mexicans milking. They are the ones that most are willing to work the hours. If you are in the barn at 3a.m. and get done by say 7 with milking and cleanup. Then you go home, eat some breakfast, go back to the barn maybe to do the barn scraping or feeding... Then home for a nap, get back up and go back to the barn at 2pm, and get done and home by say 5:30 or 6 pm. Supper, then time to go to bed and get up by 3 again. It cuts into your family life, your social life, everything. The farms are getting bigger, so more hours in the parlors. Some are milking 22 out of 24 hours. With time to just do the cleanup and pipeline washing etc. They milk in shifts. And let me tell you, all those hours on concrete floors, even with the mats and all that most have in the parlors to help "soften" the impact from the floors, is hard on your legs and back.
Many dairies in Europe, went to robots when they first came out. You did not have to be there twice a day, every day at the same time. You did not have to rely on help that might call in sick; legitimately or not. You didn't have to worry if the cows were getting milked "on time". You did not have to pay benefits, provide housing, deal with the daily "drama" of human BS.
There is alot of upkeep to robots. You have to monitor the cows, their coming in and getting milked, there are breakdowns. But if you have something that needs to be done early one morning, you can go check on the robot and the "readouts" a little later. If you want to go to a luncheon meeting, say for anything like crops or something, and it won't get out til 3 or 4 pm, you can go to the barn after to check to see who wasn't milked during the day. You can get up at 6 am and start your day instead of 2 or 3. You are not tied to a rigid schedule. You might be in the barn at 4 pm and leave to go to an evening meeting or seminar. You can leave and go to a family members birthday party, or a basketball game.... you can have a more flexible life which gives you a better outlook.
And there are savings in other things. What I do is no longer necessary. It is all done by the computer programs. So that is saving a 100 cow farm approx 250-300 a month. It is more ongoing with the robot, so it is easier to pick up on a cow that is "starting" to not feel good, or starting a flareup of mastitis. I am not saying that the robot is the answer to everything. There is hands on that a farmer needs to do. They need monthly maintenance. Parts are not cheap. Breakdowns can be a disaster....
The plus is that a high producing cow can be milked more often, so it is more "like nature" with a calf sucking often. It is less stress on the udder ligaments. Frequent milking will actually cause the cow to make more milk. More milk will create more income. A cow that is milked 2x a day say gives 60 lbs a day. 3x a day will increase her production 10-15% so say she is up to 65-70 lbs a day. With a robotic system they say it can increase it up to 20% so up to 70-75 lbs a day. Especially if she is milked more in the early stages of lactation, she will hold that increased production longer in her lactation. More milk, means more income, means it spreads the costs out more. And less "wear and tear" on the suspensory of the udder so the udder holds up longer, more years of production.
The dairies here in Va that have gone to robots have done it for the "hired help" reasons as much as anything. But, there are some that have taken them out in Pa as the robots have "worn out" and they have not seen where they can justify the replacement costs with the milk prices being what they are. I also think that the "younger generation" is more apt to want to go the "electronic - robotic" route more than the "older" farmers. But even they are seeing that the future in dairying is not good and until it gets to where a person can make a living at it, there will be fewer and fewer that will be willing to put that kind of money into it.
