Click on “Download PDF” for the PDF version or on the title for the HTML version.

If you are not an ASABE member or if your employer has not arranged for access to the full-text, Click here for options.

A farm simulation model was used to determine the whole-farm effect of implementing automatic milking systems on farm sizes of 30 to 270 cows. Over the long-term, the adoption of automatic milking provided a small gain in annual net return at farm sizes of 50-60 cows with a loss of $0-200/cow on other farms. This economic difference between automatic and traditional milking systems was least on farms where the herd size was well matched to the capacity of the milking system (about 60, 110, 170, and 230 cow herds). Milk production level of the herd had little effect on the economic difference between traditional and automatic systems, but this difference was reduced if a substantial increase in production was maintained through a greater milking frequency with automatic milking. A relatively small reduction in the initial cost of automatic equipment, an increase in the economic life of the equipment, or a large increase in the value of milking labor improved the economic return of an automatic system relative to traditional milking systems over all farm sizes.