Posted on Aug 31, 2021
From dairies to restaurants, robots could be the future of food
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A robotic dairy farm might sound like an idea straight out of a science fiction novel to some, but for Darleen Sichley, it’s actually old news.
“I think most people have that picture in their mind of, you know, you’re sitting down on a milking stool to milk your cow,” she said. Sichley is a third-generation dairy farmer. Her Silverton farm, Abiqua Acres, is completely family-owned and operated.
“We started with robotics in 2017 and it’s been a great transition,” she said.
Tech and food have gone together since our ancient ancestors made stone hand axes, and technological developments have been fundamental to the project of feeding humanity since the agricultural revolution millennia ago. Increasingly, automated systems — you might call them robots — are part of that equation.
From picking fruit, serving food, and milking cows to doing dishes at a restaurant, robots help fewer people do more, all while making work safer for humans.
“I think most people have that picture in their mind of, you know, you’re sitting down on a milking stool to milk your cow,” she said. Sichley is a third-generation dairy farmer. Her Silverton farm, Abiqua Acres, is completely family-owned and operated.
“We started with robotics in 2017 and it’s been a great transition,” she said.
Tech and food have gone together since our ancient ancestors made stone hand axes, and technological developments have been fundamental to the project of feeding humanity since the agricultural revolution millennia ago. Increasingly, automated systems — you might call them robots — are part of that equation.
From picking fruit, serving food, and milking cows to doing dishes at a restaurant, robots help fewer people do more, all while making work safer for humans.
From dairies to restaurants, robots could be the future of food
Posted from opb.org
Robots
Farming
Agriculture
Food/Chow
Dairy
Posted >1 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."From picking fruit, serving food, and milking cows to doing dishes at a restaurant, robots help fewer people do more, all while making work safer for humans.
A milking robot uses a laser to find the teat of a dairy cow at Abiqua Acres dairy farm in Silverton, Oregon. Using robots is key for the dairy when finding workers is tough for such a job.
Most dairy farming is done with the use of milking units. A person attaches the unit to the cow’s teats and the milk goes through a pipeline and into a tank.
At Abiqua Acres, robots automate a few of these steps and eliminate others. Essentially, the cows can walk in at their own leisure and be milked automatically. This gives the Sichley family — and the cows themselves — more flexibility.
“As the cow enters the milking stall, she’s IDed by that RFID tag in her ear, it has her information. The system has her information, so it knows how much milk she’s expected to give,” Sichley explained. “It has a map of her udder, where her teats should be. So it starts the process of cleaning her teats first, and then it attaches the milking units.”
The entire process — which also involves feeding the cow and disinfection — takes about seven minutes. The machine stores information about the cow’s milking routine that allows Sichley to instantly check on her cows from her cell phone or computer.
A generation ago, before automation, this process could take two and a half to three hours each morning and night.
“And so now we have a lot more flexibility in our day and what we can do. We still have your daily chores, but it is lots more flexible with a young family,” Sichley said.
She doesn’t ever see robots taking over the human element of dairy farming. “You still have to be hands-on, you know, they’re still living creatures and you can’t just put in robotics and walk away,” she said."...
..."From picking fruit, serving food, and milking cows to doing dishes at a restaurant, robots help fewer people do more, all while making work safer for humans.
A milking robot uses a laser to find the teat of a dairy cow at Abiqua Acres dairy farm in Silverton, Oregon. Using robots is key for the dairy when finding workers is tough for such a job.
Most dairy farming is done with the use of milking units. A person attaches the unit to the cow’s teats and the milk goes through a pipeline and into a tank.
At Abiqua Acres, robots automate a few of these steps and eliminate others. Essentially, the cows can walk in at their own leisure and be milked automatically. This gives the Sichley family — and the cows themselves — more flexibility.
“As the cow enters the milking stall, she’s IDed by that RFID tag in her ear, it has her information. The system has her information, so it knows how much milk she’s expected to give,” Sichley explained. “It has a map of her udder, where her teats should be. So it starts the process of cleaning her teats first, and then it attaches the milking units.”
The entire process — which also involves feeding the cow and disinfection — takes about seven minutes. The machine stores information about the cow’s milking routine that allows Sichley to instantly check on her cows from her cell phone or computer.
A generation ago, before automation, this process could take two and a half to three hours each morning and night.
“And so now we have a lot more flexibility in our day and what we can do. We still have your daily chores, but it is lots more flexible with a young family,” Sichley said.
She doesn’t ever see robots taking over the human element of dairy farming. “You still have to be hands-on, you know, they’re still living creatures and you can’t just put in robotics and walk away,” she said."...
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