Video: Robotic Dairy Farming Leads to Happier, More Empowered Cows

1. what has the world come too. automated cow milkers....
EUREKA
2. what is with these spammers trying to sell clothes on a science website.(why dont you just make us to a captcha to post a comment)

3. AND WERE ARE THE WILD COWS!!!!

*Sigh* If only Popsci had a SDS - Spam Detection System - that worked half as well....

My mother grew up on a dairy farm in West Virginia, and my family still owns it. Having watched the ad, I can see how a system like this would be a boon to the industry.

Most milking machines are basically just big vacuum cleaners, with a 4-8 gallon bucket attached to the hose. They can case irritation if they suck too hard, or if left attached too long. When this happens, the irritated teat produces less milk, and may become infected, becoming basically useless until you give the cow enough meds - and time - to recover. If this happens to more than one cow at a time - which it can do, if the milking tubes aren't properly sterilized after each use - then it can really impact the amount of milk you put out in a day.

If nothing else, the automated steam-cleaning process the Astronaut performs would reduce the likelihood of infection. And unlike some human workers, the robot will never get lazy, or feel like it has to rush to the next cow without giving the tubes a proper cleaning. The little brushes it uses for cleaning and stimulation are a nice touch - probably less irritating than, say, a pair of rubber gloves.

I can only imagine that the machine's ability to operate any time of the day would be useful. For the cows, it's probably more convenient and less painful than standing around with a full udder for hours, waiting for somebody to come in and do the milking.

I would love to see systems like this making their way down to family or local dairy farmers, but given the price tag for such a complex robotic system, I doubt my folks will be able to afford one anytime soon. The sad reality is that this will probably just boost productivity for large-scale dairy farming operations, allowing them to reduce costs and drive smaller farms out of business.

Ah well. At least the cows will be happier....

I think that they shoudn't even bother with milk even though it's very popular with almost every human being on the face of the planet , but I'll just piont out something. We are the only animals who drink milk passed the age of five and also from another animal. My opinion is that milk does more harm for us then it does good and if you look at our digestive system you will see that it was made for horbivores not carnivores. Also, it takes meat to digest about a three weeks , but only a day for vegitatoin, otherwise what i'm trying to point out is that in that three week period, that meat is rotting in you and making your body work harder to to digest it. Thats why major meat eaters incounter problems such as gout,heart attacks, exuastion after brief or simple tasks such as going up a flight of stairs or when older, just getting up.Also, they will have major weight gain unless they exercise continuely ,but they most likely will (during workouts)encounter extreme pain from deterating bones cuased by little miniscule unkillible perrisites that they ucumullated when ever they ate meat. This is of course are things that won't start happening until there are atleast 25 or 30!

oh no, we all know what's next, sex robots with this technology