THE University of Melbourne opened a $5 million robotic dairy system at its Dookie campus last week.
The system, which includes a precision three-stall dairy and pasture management system, was jointly funded by the university and the Victorian Government's Regional Growth Fund.
"The Dookie robotic dairy heralds a new era of local collaborations with the dairy industry, important advances in our teaching of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences students, and welcome opportunities in research," the Faculty of Veterinary Science dean Professor Ken Hinchcliff said.
On the 6500 dairy farms in Australia, there are about 25 robotic dairies and that number is set to increase, dairy systems scientist Dr Brendan Cullen said.
The "cutting edge" facility will generate information to help Australian farmers evaluate whether such systems are appropriate for their operation and what else is required in the production system, he said.
The Dookie campus has 45 hectares of border-check irrigated perennial pasture.
At each milking, the cows go through the dairy (enticed by individually formulated supplementary feed and a well-used back-scratcher that looks like a rolling brush from a car wash) and are then drafted to a different area of the farm.
The three Lely Astronaut milking units with laser-guided teat detection, adjustable pulsation rates and automatic teat spraying can milk up to about 180 cows twice or three times a day.
The facility also has waste water settling ponds and recycling system and 118 solar panels provide 30 kilowatts of electricity, about half of dairy's energy needs.
A minimum time between milkings can be set and if a cow comes to the dairy too soon, she is drafted back into the paddock.
Cows voluntarily move through, so getting pasture allocation right is vital. If we give them too much, they won't come through for supplementary feed, but if we don't give them enough pasture, they will want to come through too often, Dr Cullen said.
"Now the dairy is operational, we are looking to build the herd up from the current about 35 cows to 160 and then to 180 cows in the next six to 12 months to fully utilise robotic dairy, which will allow us to evaluate how the systems perform close to capacity," he said.
Research projects at the facility could look into nutrition and feed-base management, cow behaviour and milk yields, head of Agriculture and Food Systems' Associate Professor Brian Leury said.
The acreage and eventual herd size are comparable to many northern Victorian farms, Murray Dairy chair Malcolm Holm said.
The University of Melbourne wants to work closely with industry and link the farm to national robotic dairy research and development programs, Dr Cullen said.
"Our students will also do small scale research projects here, and be able to see and develop skills to use leading technology," he said.
"This sort of technology captures students' interest."
Cow health is monitored by the system with each cow fitted with a smart collar that measures rumination and movement and milk colour and conductivity measured in the dairy, which can indicate mastitis before a cell count can.
Third year Bachelor of Agriculture student Nick Minogue agreed the technology was exciting and differed from that on his family's Katandra dairy farm.
Mr Minogue is looking to work in dairy and said the opportunity to experience robotic dairy and the pasture management system provided a glimpse intio the industry's future.
