YORK, Pa. — The formula for making milk is relatively simple — keep the cows fed, and they’ll produce.
But that’s also where the challenge exists. It’s impossible to be in the barn every hour, day and night, to make sure feed is pushed in and accessible on demand — unless you’re a robot.
Robots’ ability to create consistent access to feed is one factor driving dairy farmer’s interest in automated feed pushers.
Several manufacturers had such robots on display during the Keystone Farm Show on Jan. 7-9, and they were busy answering plenty of questions.
Zaman Agha, president of Milkbarn, a DeLaval dealer for parts of Maryland and Pennsylvania, said the dairy industry is on the cusp of the next generation taking over, and if it’s going to happen, technology needs to be at the forefront.
And robotic feed pushers, and even scrapers, are critical in keeping the next generation engaged and interested.
“Maybe you have the next generation that wants to farm, but they might not want to worry about pushing feed in or scraping manure,” Agha said. “There is a lot of interest in automation right now.”
Most of the automated feed pushers and scrapers are going into freestall barns, either as part of a retrofit project or as an addition to a new building.
David Bolle, sales manager with Quebec-based Rovibec Agrisolutions, said his company installed its first robot feed pusher in a Pennsylvania barn in 2015.
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Today, Rovibec has approximately 40 units operating on Pennsylvania farms, and the demand is increasing.
One factor driving sales, according to Bolle, is improving technology, which means units pay for themselves through increased milk production and efficiency.
The self-guided Ranger feed pusher offered by Rovibec costs approximately $21,000 and requires about $150 in annual maintenance. But Bolle said a return on investment can be realized in 12 to 18 months.
“It works every hour, day and night, and there are studies that indicate that pushing feed every hour increases milk production by as much as 3% per cow,” he said.
The feed pushers also improve animal health, Bolle said, because cows don’t have to stretch to reach feed, reducing knee and neck issues.
Over the years, feed pushers have also gained increased accuracy.
Justin Ayers, who oversees capital sales for Fisher & Thompson, offers robotic feed pushers and automated feed systems through its Lely division. He said, as long as the surface is level, there really isn’t an area that a feed pusher can’t access.
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“There are feed pushers now that are equipped with a skirt that can be automatically lifted when it goes over a cow walkway so it’s not touching manure,” Ayers said. “We’ve even put one in a tie stall barn in New York, but most of what we’re seeing now is retrofits and new barns that want the newest technology.”
Cleaning Barns and Saving Time
Pushing feed isn’t the only task robots can perform on dairies.
DeLaval offers a robot scraper that can push manure off alleys and out of corners. The manure robot keeps the barn cleaner, Agha said, while reducing labor.
“That’s a big thing,” he said. “One customer told us it used to take him an hour just to scrape the barn, and now that time is saved with the robot.”
Having a consistently clean barn improves hoof health and heat detection, Agha said, and the robots are quiet and gentle around cows.
The battery-operated manure robots need one hour of charge time for every hour they operate, along with a 5-hour daily charge cycle.
On average, a manure robot will clean the barn six to eight times a day, Agha said.
The robot is guided by sensors that follow RFID chips placed around the barn.
While they’ve been available for several years globally, Agha said DeLaval’s robot scraper was introduced in the U.S. in early 2024.
“We started with four units and were able to sell them right away,” he said.
Still, the technology is relatively new and Agha said improvements are still being made.
“We’re trying to strengthen it so it works better in a barn bedding with sand,” he said. “We’re also making software updates to enable turns of 45 degrees instead of just 90 degrees.”
The robot can be trained, through sensors, to push manure to a pit or dump location inside the barn, and that’s usually where it parks and charges.
A big, straight barn with ample space to turn around works best, Agha said.
As improvements continue to evolve, he expects demand for robot scrapers and feed pushers to continue to grow as well.
“The threshold with robotics is basically, is it fixing a problem? You’re spending money up front, so you need to add value in return, and that can be an consistently clean barn or increased milk production because the feed is always pushed up,” Agha said. “In those ways, it can pay for itself.”
