CERES, CA – Green Source Automation announced another new customer coming on board in the Midwest United States. VDS Farms has fully embraced dairy automation and is installing two RotaryMATE robots on its 40-stall rotary parlor, one robot for the Pre-milking position (RotaryMATE EXPS) and one robot for the Post-milking position (RotaryMATE EXPD).

"We have seen the dairy industry moving in this direction for many years now and have been preparing for this at our dairy," said Camille Vanpee, Director of VDS Farms. "Green Source Automation is the clear leader in rotary parlor automation and we were very impressed with what they’ve accomplished at other dairies. We’re excited to bring the robots to our barn and take advantage of the consistent, reliable processing of the herd and all the benefits that come from that."

As you look at the dairy industry overall, one thing is clearly evident – robotic automation is shaping the future for large and small dairymen alike. Technological advances in the space have been happening for decades, allowing dairymen to do more with less manual labor.

Green Source Automation's RotaryMATE robots continue to deliver consistent, reliable performance for its customers. From the beginning GSA knew that saving money on labor by replacing inconsistent manual labor with fully automated robotics would be a primary driver of adoption of the RotaryMATE by dairymen.

What GSA suspected would also be true were other improvements in the barn and the herd as a result of improving consistency in the Pre and Post-milking positions.

For years, Green Source Automation has been promoting the benefits of high-speed automation to dairymen around the world. The solutions GSA has developed allow dairymen to add automation to their existing rotary parlors – in effect retrofitting them into their rotary parlors. But a new trend is emerging in the dairy industry with farmers planning for automation in advance and constructing Purpose-Built Dairies.

At Sunrise Dairy Farms in Arizona, the Gingg brothers saw the Green Source technology in action and determined that it was exactly what they needed to implement in their new rotary parlor. Rather than retrofitting it, the Ginggs started their project with automation in mind and built and designed their 72-stall Delaval rotary parlor specifically to use the Green Source Automation RotaryMATE EXPD.

Green Source Automation has been the leader in high-speed automation for the dairy industry since the release of the first RotaryMATE post-dip robot (EXPD). The success of the RotaryMATE EXPD and EXPS (pre-stimulation) robots have cemented this leadership position in the market with installations throughout the United States at large dairies.

Automating an industry doesn't happen overnight. However, if you look at every industry, the shift to greater efficiency and automation absolutely does happen, every time. From automobiles to meat processing, from wine to bottled water, from consumer packaged goods to phones and computers, over time, the systems and processes evolve as the shift to full automation takes hold (read more about this shift here "Automation Continues To Shape The Dairy Industry").

In the dairy industry, the gravitation toward efficiency is happening at every barn already as evidenced by culling practices. Just like a broken pallet, a bent car frame, a misshapen box, or a cracked bottle, you have to pull out the components that don't meet the minimum standard so that the process can run smoothly. Dairy farmers do this today by culling those animals that don't meet the minimum standards.

Ceres, CA, February 21, 2012 – Over the past two weeks more than fifty dairymen from some of the largest dairies in the country descended on a local farmer's barn in California to view the latest advances in rotary parlor automation.

The response that was heard from virtually every person that witnessed it can be summed up in a word, "impressive."

Ceres, CA — Valsigna Farms in Hilmar, CA has added the RotaryMATE EXPD to its rotary parlor. The 2400-head herd is milked two and a half times per day and has already begun reaping the benefits of the RotaryMATE system.

Like many similar-sized dairies, the Valsigna Farms operation, prior to adding the RotaryMATE, used a flex position that was responsible both for monitoring and attending to cows as they were being milked as well as for applying the post-dip chemicals to the cows prior to exiting the rotary parlor.  This created a few challenges that the RotaryMATE Post-dip robot was able to address – inconsistent application of the post-dip chemicals, animal stress, worker stress, and wasted product/lower yields.

Ten years ago, the largest privately-owned winery in the world employed over 100 people in the packaging end of their bottle manufacturing factory. These individuals performed all duties from packaging and palletizing, to inspection and quality control. Despite being a mind-numbing, repetitive job with incredibly high burn-out and turn-over, the process itself was inefficient, costly, and subject to a high degree of human error.

Fast-forward ten years and today this same winery has no process workers in this area — not one. Inspection systems, Robotic casepackers, Robotic palletizers, automatic guided vehicles for transport, stretch wrappers, all operating in concert with one another and with no human intervention. Maximum profitability and sustainability have been attained.

How did they get there? A true vision for the end goal, and a passion to work through the individual steps along the way. Their efforts have indeed paid off.

This kind of break-through automation has arrived in the dairy industry in the rotary parlor.

We like to think of the RotaryMATE as this cutting-edge, brand new technology. While it's true that the RotaryMATE is the only solution in the market that can automate the labor positions of the rotary and allow for continuous motion of the rotary, the truth is — our technology has been working in dairies across the country for more than two years. In technology years, we might as well be getting sized for dentures.