Automatic Milk Collection System

The Dairy Industry in India is contributing to a huge percentage of the country’s economy. India is in one of the leading positions in the world with about 288 million bovine population of the total world bovine population of 1420 million. The population rate has increased from 62.90 million of breedable cows and 42.46 million of breedable buffaloes in the 1992 livestock census. This increased rate also shows a tremendous increase in the milk production from 17 million tons in 1951 to 155.5 million tons in 2015-16. Tamil Nadu, Bihar, and Haryana have contributed about 85% of the total milk production of the country. The present per capita availability of milk is 337 gms.
Besides knowing the statistics and contribution of dairy industry to the India’s economy, improving the milk quality becomes another major concern of the industry. In India, the price of milk is determined by fat percentage and Solid Non-Fat (SNF) in milk. This fat level is determined using Butyrometer method, which is, of course, one of the oldest technologies adopted by the milk cooperative societies and milk collection centers in India. However, with the advancement in technology, many societies have begun using advanced milk testers to test fat percentage in milk.

Automatic Milk Collection System

While talking about the Automatic Milk Collection System, with such large amount of milk being produced today as compared to the past decades, the use and importance of this system are inevitable. The automatic milking process or system is like an agricultural robot or robotic milking.

The main objective of using the Automatic Milk Collection System is:

To increase accuracy and efficiency of fat testing in milk
To reduce manual efforts by switching to automotive system and accelerate the process

This automated system in milk collection has brought significant development and profits to the milk societies and collection centers. To say, this automatic system in milk collection has revolutionized the dairy industry. It helps in every aspect of improving the efficiency, data analysis, record keeping, and much more with just the software performing all the required tasks with no or less human efforts.

Key Benefits of the Automatic Milk Collection System
With the introduction of this commercial system in 1992 in the dairy industry, it has now become viral and has been installed at many centers and cooperative societies across the country. This milking machine has brought more interest and expectations among the dairy farmers.

Here are some of the key benefits of AMS (Automatic Milking System):

Reduced labor
Improved / better social life for the dairy farm families
Increased milk yield because of frequent milking
Farm management has become simple and efficient
Manage regular milking times automatically
Visual control on the cows
Create opportunity for grazing
Helps to maintain somatic cell counts and bacterial counts below penalty levels

This system has also created the facilities to clean and separate abnormal milk.

Whilst talking about the quality of milk collected, AMCS assures expected quality and food safety. Although the Automatic Milking System requires higher investment when compared to the conventional systems, the increased milk yields with reduced labor requirements do make it profitable to the milk collection centers and dairy farmers. This system has, in fact, helped to reduce the cost per kg milk without compromising on the production level and quality.

Key Factors of Automatic Milking System
The AMCS is now globally recommended and used widespread across the country by a number of farms, milk collection centers, and cooperative societies. On successful installation of the AMCS, here are some of the issues that have been resolved:
Ability to work with computers
Realistic expectations
Instant measurement of fat in milk
Fast and economical
Spot payments for the farmers
Operational integration
Reduction in wastage
Transparency in activities
Flexibility in controlling the system and cows
Worthy support by the skilled consultants in the implementation of the system
Food management of cattle
Maintain cattle health as desired
Single and Multi-Stall AMCS

The AMC system features Single Stall Systems and Multi-Stall Systems.
To brief-

Single stall system: This system is integrated with the robotic and milking functions. With this system, it is possible to milk up to 65 cows several times a day.

Multi-stall systems: This system is integrated with transportable robot device and milking and detachment devices at each stall. With this system, it is possible to milk from 80 to 150 cows three times a day.

Mobile Automatic Milking System

While the AMC systems are mostly positioned in a fixed place, the mobile milking robots were recently developed and introduced in Denmark and Netherlands. This mobile system efficiently solves the problem of distance existing between the immobile automatic milk systems and grazing cow. This system has also created an opportunity to increase farm yield with regular visits and frequent milking. This system is equipped with all essential equipment such as vacuum pump, bulk tank, cleaning systems, AM system and other essential machinery. This system was

successfully tested in 2008 with 35 cows, and now it has gained a huge reputation in major countries across the world.

Ritesh Sutaria holds over 15 years of experience in Product Engineering and leading an organization. He is a technical expert with sound knowledge on all Microsoft Technologies with a proven track record in technological developments for diverse customers' applications