Robotic Cow Milkers

Well, today I traveled to Annapolis with the fine folks from Western Maryland Rural Leadership. And along the way, we stopped at Mason Dixon Farm where Richard Waybright showed us around his super-efficient farm complete with robotic milkers.

The Waybrights employ 43 people and milk 2,400 head of holsteins daily through the use of robotic milkers. The cows self milk. As they want to be milked, they enter the a milking station, where a robotic DeLaval arm automatically does an udder wash, a milk test and in begins to milk. A computer automatically records each cows milk yield. Waybright's blue-ribbon cow milked 20# of milk per day.

This wasn't the only super-cool thing though. The Waybrights created a tractor that can mow down a 30' swath of silage, utilize a methane digester, and a irrigation thing on wheels to spread manure across their fields at a press of a button. Well, worth the tour!