Economic impact of introducing automatic milking system on Canadian dairy farms

Abstract Text:

Adoption of automatic milking system (AMS) increased exponentially over the last years around the world. In 2014, 5% of Canadian dairy farms owned an AMS. The objective of this study was to evaluate the economic impact following AMS introduction in Canadian dairy herds. Data were first collected during a phone interview on 213 Canadian dairy farms having shifted to AMS (British-Colombia, n=8; Alberta, n=42; Saskatchewan, n=6; Manitoba, n=12; Ontario, n=73; Québec, n=65; and Atlantic provinces (New-Brunswick, Nova-Scotia, Prince-Edward-Island), n=7). Secondly, 151 farms out of 213 have answered a more detailed online survey. After AMS adoption, herd size, milk production, and number of robots per herd averaged 100.2 ± 64.3 cows, 10,764 ± 1,663 kg, and 1.94 ± 1.36 robots, respectively. Milk production, reproduction, and culling data were provided by Valacta and CanWest DHI. Partial budgets were computed using an Excel spreadsheet; surveyed data were completed with literature data. Results of the partial budgets were divided by the respective number of cows after the AMS introduction to allow comparison regardless of herd size. Average parameter values were calculated for herds below percentile 25 and above percentile 75 for the net margin per cow and were compared with either a t-test or a Wilcoxon signed-rank test. On average, after AMS introduction, herd size, milk production and culling rate were increased by 7.3 cows, 741.6 kg/cow/yr and 1.5%, respectively, and calving interval and labor requirement were decreased by 6.8 d and 15.1 h/cow/yr, respectively. Net margin per cow following AMS adoption was negative and averaged CAN $-1,204.41 ± 1,080.06. Introducing AMS resulted in increased costs of CAN $2,277.45 ± 1,362.21/cow mainly due to robot, barn construction or modifications and cow purchase amortizations (41.9% of total increased costs) and interest (27.8%). Increase in income averaging CAN $1,073.04 ± 1,739.10/cow was explained by milk production increase (55.1% of total increased income) and labor requirement decrease (29.8%). Highest net margin herds (P75) were characterized by having higher increased income (P75, CAN $2,331.76 and P25, CAN $-315.81; P<0.0001) as compared with P25 herds. No difference was noted for increased costs (P=0.82) between P25 and P75 herds. Difference in profitability between P75 and P25 herds was mainly due to milk production increase (CAN $524.47/cow; P=0.0004). In summary, only 6% of dairy producers shifting to AMS have an expected payback less than 12 yr, which is the theoretical milking robot useful life.    

Keywords: milking robot, partial budget, dairy