You are invited to join our first Robotic Milker Discussion Group meeting planned for Thursday, August 19th, at Oakleigh Farm, owned by Glenn and Karen Brake, at 7100 Renninger Road, Mercersburg, PA 17523. The Brakes have recently installed a Lely robotic milker system and have the first fully automated Lely Red Barn in Pennsylvania. They milk 115 cows and have two A5 Milking robots, a Vector feeding robot with silos, and two Discovery Collector Barn Cleaners. If you plan to attend, please register below so we have an idea on numbers.

The discussion group meeting will be facilitated by Dr. Charlie Gardner, who works as a consultant with the Center, with the following agenda for the day:

10:00 – 10:30 a.m. Registration and welcome

10:30 – 11:30 a.m. Farm and Facility Tour

11:30 – 12:30 p.m. Lunch

12:30 – 1:30 p.m. Roundtable Discussion with Group Members, facilitated by Dr. Gardner

1:30 – 2:30 p.m. Managing Milk Quality & Mastitis in an Automated Milking System, presented by Dr. Marcia Endres, University of Minnesota Department of Animal Science

The roundtable discussion will include a conversation about your goals for participating in this discussion group and what you would like future meetings to include. Dr. Endres has done numerous research studies on free-flow automatic systems and its impact on milk production and milk quality. Since the group identified milk quality as a key topic area for the group, we thought we would kick off the discussion with Dr. Endres’ perspective on managing mastitis in a robotic barn.

There is no cost to join this discussion group, but we would like to know if you are able to attend. Please register below for the meeting and let us know you plan to attend. If you have any questions regarding the meeting or the group, please don’t hesitate to ask. You can either email Jayne Sebright or call her at 717-817-1376.

Robotic Milker Discussion Group – Registration

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