With the localization of robotic milking machines that use 3D cameras to milk without human intervention, expectations are rising that the adoption of digital automation will spread in the aging domestic dairy industry.

The Rural Development Administration (Administrator Heo Tae-woong) announced on the 18th that it has succeeded in localizing a robotic milking machine that milks cows without human intervention, in collaboration with the Korea Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Agricultural and Food Technology (IPET) and Down Co., Ltd.

The annual labor time a dairy farmer invests in one dairy cow is approximately 71 hours. Of this, 30 hours, or 42%, are spent on milking. In addition, 17.6 hours are spent on feeding and 23.4 hours on other tasks.

As of February this year, 153 foreign-made robotic milking machines have been introduced in Korea, which accounts for about 2% of all dairy farms in the country. Foreign-made milking machines are expensive (around 350 million won), and high initial investment and maintenance costs have been a burden on farms.

In addition, there were difficulties in receiving prompt after-sales service when breakdowns or abnormalities occurred.

The price of the domestically produced robotic milking machine for farms is around 200 million won, which is 60% of the price of foreign products, thereby lowering the burden of initial investment costs. By using commercial products for consumable parts, it was possible to operate with maintenance costs at half the level of foreign products.

There have been two attempts to localize robotic milking machines in Korea so far, but they were unsuccessful due to difficulties with system operation speed and the development of robotic arms.

In this development, nipple recognition technology using a 3D camera was applied to improve accuracy and system operation speed. In addition, by utilizing domestically produced industrial robot arms, stability was ensured and costs could be reduced.

18 technologies differentiated from foreign products have completed patent application and registration.

In terms of milking performance, such as the number of times milking is possible per day and the time spent per animal during milking, it is at a level similar to foreign products.

Until now, biometric data produced by domestic robotic milking machines was sent to the machine development companies, causing difficulties in utilizing it domestically.

Biological data from domestic robotic milking machines is linked and stored in real-time in the Rural Development Administration's Agricultural Big Data Management System (ABMS), and is expected to be valuable for the development of domestic digital precision dairy farming technology.

The developed robotic milking machine is scheduled to be distributed to farms in earnest starting in 2023, following pilot projects at five locations in 2022.

Park Beom-young, Director of the National Institute of Animal Science at the Rural Development Administration, said, “Domestic robotic milking machines can not only improve the quality of life for dairy farmers by reducing labor costs, but also accelerate domestic digital dairy farming.”

Park Chang-kyu, representative of the farm in Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do that conducted the demonstration test of a domestic robotic milking machine, stated, “The localization of robotic milking machines will help improve the profitability of dairy farmers by resolving issues such as the price burden and maintenance costs associated with foreign-made machines.”