Lely Astronaut Milking Robot Monitors Udder Health Continuously

Udder health is important for cow health and good milk production. The use of somatic cell count (SCC) has proven to be a highly useful insight to predict a case of mastitis. However, cows naturally tend to fluctuate on SCC which makes it hard to monitor and treat. To avoid use of medicines it is critical to treat cows at the right time.

Lely now introduces SMART sampling on the MQC-C, an optional device on the milking robot which measures the somatic cell count of the milk, to ensure continuously smart monitoring with a saving on reagent and milk.

With milking by a Lely Astronaut, all milk is continuously monitored. This provides the dairy farmer with vital information on mastitis, fat, protein and lactose for managing milk quality and cow health, allowing him to respond quickly and achieve optimal milk quality.

Preventing mastitis can save farmers a lot of income through reduced milk production, medical and labour costs. The optional MQC‑C somatic cell count measurement is of great importance in monitoring udder health. The integrated system monitors the SCC in a highly efficient manner.

The new sampling method is developed to minimize the number of samples which reduces costs, while maintaining enough information to monitor cows properly. With SMART sampling every third milking per cow will be sampled. For those cows with increased SCC the sampling frequency will automatically apply to each milking for as long as necessary. By showing the development of SCC values the farmer can decide how to treat the specific cow. This is also highly beneficial for cows in late lactation. A fact based decision makes effective dry cow treatment easier. In return this will lead to getting the next lactation off to a great start.

In addition the structured monitoring makes the attention list more accurate and precise. Information is clearly shown in the Lely T4C management program which gives valuable information on individual cow-level. For example the SCC values will also indicate on which level an individual cow is contributing to the bulk tank cell count. Lely MQC-C SMART sampling is continuously monitoring each individual cow and accurately predicts when cows need the farmers attention.