What steps should producers take before making the change to robotic milking? We highlight some points to consider for a smooth transition TEXT MELISSA WOOD There’s more to consider than potential labour savings and cow health and productivity benefits when making the switch from conventional to robotic milking. Before investing in an automatic setup it’s essential that producers first clearly define objectives and set goals, a ccording to Advanced Ruminant Nutrition’s Eoghan Mullery, who...

The individual-cow milk sample ‘tells all’, from herd management to cutting edge research, as ongoing on-farm and cutting-edge research in Scotland highlights.   TEXT KAREN WRIGHT Measuring methane and monitoring progress as part of the UK dairy farms’ carbon footprint score continues to be an important focus on UK dairy units. The development of an accurate tool to help map progress will be invaluable. And it is what researchers on a project, being carried out at SRUC’s Barony Campus, based...

Latest report reveals that huge strides have been made by producers to reduce antimicrobial use, allowing them to meet industry targets and protect herd health and welfare.   TEXT SARAH BOLT Antibiotic use has declined across the UK dairy sector, which is great news. And even better is that this reduction has been achieved without negatively impacting herd health. That was the key finding of a report, by Kingshay, which confirms that producers have significantly reduce antimicrobial with no...