Trioliet’s WB feeding robot.
manager Stefan Schulte. “One robot can feed up to 700 head and we can combine multiple robots in a system. At this very moment we are building a system to feed 1,400 milking cows. And finally, we have the Triomatic WB 2 300 battery-driven robot if rails are impossible in the case of low roofing or if the robot travels between barns with an important driveway be- tween. All Triomatic robots have a 3m3
mixing tub with two
vertical augers.” Schulte and his colleagues are seeing more and more farmers interested in robotic feeding. “It is hard to get qualified employees, and saving on labour and energy costs is getting more important,” he says. While he acknowledges that the cost of a robot feeder is higher than a trailed mixer, he believes that the difficulties in finding qualified labour and the energy savings will propel the in- vestment in robotic feeding. “Also,” Schulte adds, “robot feed- ing can enable dedicated feeding of all groups (of animals) multiple times per day, which increases feed efficiency.” Mark Kruidhof and his family have had a T30 with WB robot since 2019 on their dairy farm (150 milking herd) in Ommen, the Netherlands. Before they got it, they had a self-propelled feed mixer and decided to look for other feeding options because of diesel usage and the time it took to feed all the animals. “We like how the Trioliet T30 is accurate in the amount and the mixture of the feed,” says Kruidhof. “Our cows eat multiple
12 ▶DAIRY GLOBAL | Volume 7, No. 4, 2020
times a day, but smaller and fresher portions. Because of that our cows are eating more and we see an increase in milk production.” In terms of the WB robot, Kruidhof thinks using a feeding ro- bot is the way forward, saving a lot of time on feeding that can be better spent. He notes that the WB is still in pilot phase and they’ve had to add a door from another supplier that opens automatically to allow the robot entry. “Problems in communication between the robot and the door system can require a discussion, because each supplier can claim that the problem is not in their product,” he says. “We would suggest an all-in-one solution.” Their robot has to drive outside to get to the feed kitchen and different cowsheds, and Kruidhof says it’s better when the ro- bot has the space to stay in the cowshed. “This way you don’t have to think about where you leave your tractor and if the robot is going to bump into it,” he explains.
Portable, solar precision cattle feeding Next up is an electric and portable precision cattle feeding machine, the Super SmartFeed made by US-based C-Lock. In January 2020, Dr. Nicolas DiLorenzo, associate professor at the University of Florida’s North Florida Research and Educa- tion Center in Marianna, and his colleague Gleise Silva pub- lished an evaluation of this machine. DiLorenzo notes that this machine can mitigate the amount of labour involved
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