Determination of the parameters and milking values relating to increasing robot efficiency in robotic milking systems

Smart farming practices take their place in dairy farms as well as in other areas of agriculture. Showing individual attention to cows in groups, gaining momentum with identification products, daily chores in a farm, like feeding animals, diagnosis and follow-up of health problems, heat detection, milking and barn cleaning, can be done with robotic devices and equipment. The most important development among technological products has been the realization of milking processes with robotic systems. The main purpose is to reduce labor, increase animal welfare, and improve the quality of farmer's life with using of robotic systems. Milking robots, which have been used for 30 years in developed countries, entered Turkey about 10 years ago. Robotic milking technology, which has become rapidly popular in our country, will be the most common technological development of dairy farms in the future. In addition to the fact that all of the commercially patented robot units are imported and high-cost products, the wrong and inefficient use of these products can cause losses to the farmers'economy. The aim of this study; It is to determine the parameters and milking values for increasing the efficiency by following the operation of the robotic milking systems acquired with high investment costs in a commercial farm. In the research, the performance of all robotic systems in the farm for two years, the performance of the robots in a barn for four years, the effect of the animal udder hygiene score on the robot milking processes, the increase in the concentrated feed given in the robot and the effects of push-up feed in the feed table on the robot's performance were investigated. In the two-year trials which four barns were compared, the average milking per cow was found to be close to each other across the herd (2.66; 2.70 time/cow, day). According to the results of the four-year trial in a barn in the farm, the milk yield per milking increased each year (9.11; 11.70; 11.82 and 15.25 kg/milking, cow, by years respectively). The difference between the conductivity numbers in cows with udder hygiene scores of 3 and 4 in the fall period was higher than in animals with scores of 1 and 2 (score 3: 27.84%; score 4: 31.48%). While the change in the amount of concentrated feed was not effected on milk yield, milking frequency and duration in low-yielding cows, it had a positive effect in high-yielding cows. When the current number of push-up the feed was increased from 3 to 6, very little increase in milk yield (0.33%). However, by increasing the number of push-up the feed to 9, the decrease in milk yield was more (4.07%). It has been shown that very high push-up frequency disturbs the cows during their rest periods and consequently negatively affects both cow comfort and milk production.