Milking the Moment: N.C. A&T Dairy Brings Tech to the Barn

As a crowd of legislators, dairy industry leaders, faculty, staff and Cooperative Extension personnel watched, a small, brown Jersey cow stepped up to be milked in the N.C. A&T University Dairy.

In the comfort of her free stall barn, she was fanned, brushed, gently cleaned and fed a snack as the only university-based Automated Milking System in North Carolina, a De Laval 300, attached four teat cups and began to draw milk. As she munched, the machine’s digital display relayed information about her flow rate, conductivity, milk yield by teat, and other factors. If she had mastitis, or was off her feed, the system would relay that information, too.

The dairy demonstrated its new, state-of-the-art Automated Milking System at an open house this fall, ushering the Aggie herd into the digital age. The AMS is the most advanced university-based milking system in the state, one of just six in the nation housed at a university. This fully voluntary system allows each cow to be milked as many times a day, and at any time of day, according to her individual needs and capacity, reducing her stress and discomfort.

“Precision agriculture, such as this milking system, is revolutionizing farming, and our college is in the forefront of that movement in the state,” said Gregory Goins, Ph.D., associate dean for the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences’ research division. “Our college has been working very intentionally on developing our capacity to provide training and research on precision techniques to improve farmers’ lives and boost the state’s $103 billion agriculture industry.”

The system brings the University Dairy – the only dairy in the nation that is part of an Historically Black College and University – online with an artificial intelligence-based system that benefits animals, dairy producers, researchers and students alike.

“It’s a great system for the cows,” said Lauren Mayo, Ph.D., research assistant professor In the Department of Animal Sciences within the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. “It gives the cows choices, and they’re very particular. This system allows them to do what they know they need to do without having to wait on a human to help them. It’s sort of like a spa for our cows. They can come in, get taken care of any time they like, and move on.”

Research shows that automated, voluntary milking systems result in increased milking frequency and decreased milking times while lowering labor costs for dairy producers, Mayo said. Each cow is monitored and becomes uniquely “known” to the system, allowing dairy operators to become aware of problems – and solve them – more quickly.

“The milker customizes for each cow’s maximum comfort,” said Corey Burgess, dairy unit supervisor on the A&T University Farm. “It also sends the operator a steady stream of data – about the cow’s condition, what she ate, the nutrients in her milk. It can tell if she’s pregnant or has any issues long before they’re visible to her caregivers. The system offers something to every STEM major at the university.”

The data stream allows dairy workers to manage the herd’s nutrition and health more efficiently than they could otherwise, and the automation allows them to solve one of the industry’s most vexing problems: labor shortages.

“This system also provides a huge advantage for our students, so that we can give them advanced, experiential learning with precision technologies so that they can secure careers in the dairy industry, the fastest growing, in terms of careers, within the livestock industry. It will allow students to investigate individual animal health, nutrition, and reproduction using Big Data gained from the system,” Mayo said.

The introduction of the Automated Milking System Is the next step in technological advances at the 492-acre University Farm and in the college, Goins said. This year, the CAES research portfolio nearly topped $40 million, with such major new initiatives as the $18.1 million NextGen grant from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, designed to grow students’ awareness and participation in agriculture; and the $13 million Urban and Community Food Complex, a part-business incubator, part research facility, set to begin construction this fall.

“Tech is a way to bring youth, who are more tech-savvy, into agriculture and choose it for a major,” he said. “As the largest HBCU college of agriculture in the nation, we have a responsibility to be that driver.

“We’re using this piece of technology to conduct research and train our students in ways that will provide a major return on investment for the citizens of North Carolina,” he said. “I’m glad that this represents our first push to make A&T the ‘farm of the future.’ ”