A farming family near Protem in the Western Cape is using six robots to milk more than 360 Jersey cows at any hour of the day, Farmer’s Weekly reported.
Goedgeleë Farm, owned by the Human family, has South Africa’s second robotic dairy. The first was set up by Job Legemaat near Rayton in 2016.
“There is minimal human intervention, which reduces stress on the cows and ultimately results in more milk of better quality,” farmer Pierre Human told Farmer’s Weekly.
The farm uses six GEA R9500 robotic milking units. The cows are not driven to the milking shed at set times. Each cow walks to a robot when she is ready.
When a cow comes near a robot, a computer checks if she is due for milking. If she is not, a gate opens and she walks on to the feeding area.
“Each quarter of the udder is milked individually, and the cows decide for themselves how often they want to be milked,” said Pierre’s son, Pierre-Jacques Human.
The best cows visit the robots up to five times a day and give up to 40 litres of milk. The average cow visits about 3.2 times a day and gives between 12 and 30 litres.
Inside the robot, cleaning, milking and dipping of the teats happen on their own. Milk from each part of the udder is checked separately. This stops an infection in one part from spoiling all the milk.
Only two workers run the whole dairy. One handles herd records and the daily running of the barn. The other cleans, keeps the building in order and watches the cows.
Software tracks each cow’s milk, feed, activity, fertility and health. It sends SMS alerts to the farmer when milk output or herd health changes. Cows that need a vet or insemination are moved by the system into a special care area.
“There are no fixed milking times. The entire dairy can even be monitored remotely by cell phone or camera,” Pierre-Jacques said.
Each cow gets her own feed mix based on how much milk she gives and her body condition. Pierre designed a solar-powered machine that keeps pushing feed closer to the cows.
Manure is scraped away by a robot. The liquid part is reused as water for cleaning, and the solid part goes back onto the fields as fertiliser. Large roofs give the cows shade and also catch rainwater.
To keep milking going during load shedding, the farm has a standby generator that starts on its own. A backup power supply keeps the computers, pumps and robots running until the generator takes over.
Pierre started the dairy in 1983 after he came home from university. Years later, his son Pierre-Jacques also returned to the farm after his studies.
At that time, dairy farming in South Africa was under pressure. Milk prices were low and costs kept rising. The number of dairy farmers fell from nearly 6,500 in 1999 to fewer than 1,700 by 2016.
The family said it had to choose between growing and modernising or leaving dairy farming. “The planning process alone took almost 10 years,” Pierre said.
Pierre admitted that he did not understand the technology at first. “I have always believed that if you don’t keep innovating, you’ll eventually fall behind,” he said.
The farm delivers its milk every second day to Mooivallei Dairy in Bonnievale. The herd records a somatic cell count of between 80,000 and 100,000 cells per millilitre, a measure of udder health.
Source: this article is based on reporting by Farmer’s Weekly SA. Image: Farmer’s Weekly SA. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice Technology desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Werner Jacobs covers technology for Tzaneen Voice. Werner reports on mobile networks, data prices, internet access, smartphones, apps, AI, cybersecurity and South African tech companies. Each story explains what a new product, price change or policy means for ordinary users in South Africa.