If you’re milking your herd with an automatic milking system (AMS), chances are you see your cows as robot customers. And as the saying goes: The customer is always right.

Robotic dairy owners and herd managers should be asking themselves: “Do I have the right plan in place with detailed strategies and standard operating procedures to motivate and help my customers perform their best – or in other words, achieve their genetic potential?”

It’s been said that “it’s hard to be a bright light in a dim world.” For success to be achieved, the environment must provide the essential components.

New research brings this statement to light: Proper parlor and dairy facility lighting may play a role in herd performance and an operation’s bottom line.

Winter in Minnesota, as usual, was very cold this year, especially in January. On one especially frigid day, the wind chill was -35ºF.

Despite the fact that free-cow traffic is the norm on robotic milking farms (in the Netherlands around 90 percent of farmers choose this option), we often get questions from farmers about directed-cow traffic.

“What does Vetvice think about directed-cow traffic?” they ask us. Or, in a more challenging vein: “Why do you never talk about directed-cow traffic – that works well too, doesn’t it?” And they often go on to cite one or more farms as examples.

Cow comfort is an all-encompassing term, which includes almost everything we do on a dairy farm.

When we really think about the whole picture, every minute detail has an influence on the comfort of the cow.

As an example, the location of the facilities is a major consideration.