The NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) has launched a world-first management tool to help dairy farmers make decisions when using automatic milking systems (AMS).
Leader of Dairy at NSW DPI, Nicolas Lyons said the AMS Integrated Management Model (IMM) tool gave farmers a better understanding of AMS and its performance.
Dr Lyons said the project aimed to support farmers who were considering investing in or already operating AMS by minimising risk and maximising the successful transition to robotic milking.
“It is a world-first decision support tool for pasture-based AMS that integrates commercial farm data obtained across multiple locations and years,” he said.
“It’s a flexible and user-friendly online interface to help farmers plan and optimise performance of the system.”
Dr Lyons said AMS IMM was created by Development Officer at NSW DPI, Juan Gargiulo and was based on historical data from commercial farms collected as part of the Department’s Milking Edge project.
Mr Gargiulo said the Milking Edge data was a key feature of the innovative tool and was unique as it used five years of economic and physical data from several farms operating AMS in Australia and overseas.
“It allows you to benchmark many key performance insights against all the data that is behind the tool,” he said.
“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.
Mr Gargiulo said the new NSW DPI tool had been tested by farmers using AMS in Australia, Ireland and New Zealand with “extremely positive and encouraging results”.
