Robotic milking of buffaloes: a preliminary survey on milking capacity of automatic milking systems

Abstract

Automatic Milking Systems (AMS) represent a steady technology in dairy cows with more than 8500 milking units (MU) installed worldwide, especially in North Western Europe where are located about 80% of the automatic milking farms. Main advantages of AMS in cows are better labor organization, improved animal behavior and increased milk yields (Hogeveen, H., 2001). In dairy buffaloes AMS are a worldwide absolute novelty and the first milking robots (4) were installed in a farm located in South Italy (Campania) since May 2008. Aim of the present survey was to evaluate the milking capacity of AMS in dairy buffaloes