13.07.2015 Views

ICAR Technical Series no. 7 - Nitra Proc.

ICAR Technical Series no. 7 - Nitra Proc.

ICAR Technical Series no. 7 - Nitra Proc.

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS
  • No tags were found...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

Chances and challengesfarmers (Ipema et al, 1998) and therefore the introduction of an AM-systemon a farm will effect the farm and farm management in several ways. Till<strong>no</strong>w little eco<strong>no</strong>mical information is available from commercial herds usingan AM-system. Several simulation models have been developed to calculatethe eco<strong>no</strong>mical effect.One of the basic models used, is the Room for Investment model(Mandersloot, Arendzen). This model computes the amount of money thatcan be invested in an AM-system, without any change of the net returncompared with the conventional milking system. The RFI-value iscalculated by accumulating the annual returns from increase in milk yield,annual savings in labour costs, annual savings in <strong>no</strong>t investing in theconventional milking parlour and then dividing this total by the annualcosts of the AM-system. The model is able to use the farm specific factorsand circumstances to calculate the RFI-value. In figure 2 the results of acombined sensitivity analysis are presented. The figure shows clearly thatincrease in milk yield and labour savings are essential factors regardingthe eco<strong>no</strong>my of AM-systems. The RFI-value for the basic farm with 10%milk yield increase, 10% labour saving, medium automated milking parlourand 25% annual costs of the AM-system amounts to Euro 134 000. Thedifferences between the extremes are rather large, almost equal to theinvestment of a single stall AM-system.ReferencesArendzen I, A.T.J van Scheppingen, 2000, Eco<strong>no</strong>mical sensitivityof four main parameters defining the room for investement of AM-systemson dairy farms, in: Robotic Milking, <strong>Proc</strong>eedings of the internationalsymposium held in Lelystad, pp. 201-211.Devir S., C.C. Ketelaer-de Lauwere and J.P.T.M. Noordhuizen, 1995.The milking robot dairy farm management: operational performancecharacteristics and consequences. In: The dairy control and managementsystem in the dairy farm. Ph.D. thesis, pp. 44-72.Ipema A., H.J. Schuiling, 1992, Free fatty acids, influence of milkingfrequency, in: <strong>Proc</strong>eedings of the symposium on prospects for automaticmilking, EAAP publication 65, pp. 244-252.Ipema A, A. Smits and C. Jagtenberg, 1998, Praktijkervaringen metmelkrobots, in: Praktijkonderzoek, 98-6, pp. 37-39 (in Dutch)Klungel, G.H., B.A.Slaghuis, H. Hogeveen, 2000, The effect of theintroduction of automatic milking on milk quality, Journal of Dairy Science,83: 1998-2003.Koning C.J.A.M. de, and W. Ouweltjes, 2000, Maximising themilking capacity of an automatic milking system, in: Robotic Milking,<strong>Proc</strong>eedings of the international symposium held in Lelystad, pp. 38-46.138Conference on "Physiological and technicalaspects of machine milking"

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!