Description: About 150 Jersey cows in the rolling terrain at Rivendale Farms in Bulger, some 25 miles west of Pittsburgh, wear Fitbit-like collars that monitor their movement, eating and rumination patterns. They are milked not by humans but by robotic machines.
Source: NYTimes.com
Date: Jan 13, 2019
Robotic milkers have been available for years. But the technology has steadily improved, requiring far less human assistance than a few years ago.
The machines cost about $200,000 each. Without them, and an automated feeding system, the milking barn at Rivendale would require five workers instead of being mainly overseen by one, Ms. Grady said.
The Rivendale robotic milking machines are made by Lely, a Dutch company and a leader in the industry. In some European countries, up to 30 percent of the cows are milked by machine, while in the United States the share is about 2 percent, estimates Mathew Haan, a dairy technology expert at Pennsylvania State University’s agriculture extension program. READ REST OF STORY
Questions for discussion:
1. Do you feel this the future of all agriculture? Why or Why not?
2. What are some applications of this IS technology that you would find exciting as a manager of a an Agricultural Business?
Info Systems in Practice 