{"id":6594,"date":"2021-07-14T14:01:28","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T19:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&#038;p=6594"},"modified":"2021-07-14T14:01:28","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T19:01:28","slug":"robotic-milkers-bring-new-opportunities-for-research-outreach-and-education-at-uw-platteville","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/robotic-milkers-bring-new-opportunities-for-research-outreach-and-education-at-uw-platteville\/","title":{"rendered":"Robotic milkers bring new opportunities for research, outreach, and education at UW-Platteville"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/vHTZgAfhCEw\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>University of Wisconsin-Platteville\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.uwplatt.edu\/department\/pioneer-farm\">Pioneer Farm<\/a>\u00a0is now home to two new state-of-the-art robotic milkers, enabling more opportunities for research and engagement across campus and the tri-state region. Funded through the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.uwplatt.edu\/dairy-innovation-hub\">Dairy Innovation Hub<\/a>, the two\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lely.com\/us\/\">Lely<\/a>\u00a0A5 Astronaut robotic milkers were installed earlier this month and introduced to the nearly 200-cow herd at Pioneer Farm this week. UW-Platteville is currently the only UW System school to operate robotic milkers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause the Dairy Innovation Hub is so collaborative, this is going to open up opportunities not only for our students, but for others to learn from the robots as well, including producers and a variety of dairy industry professionals,\u201d said\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.uwplatt.edu\/profile\/montgomeryt\">Dr. Tera Montgomery<\/a>, professor of dairy and animal science at UW-Platteville.<\/p>\n<p>The information collected by the robots varies widely, from health data such as somatic cell count, to advanced lactation information, including milk components and production, to cow behavior.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI teach a dairy records analysis class, so I\u2019ll be able to bring this data directly into the classroom,\u201d said Montgomery. \u201cStudents will be able to learn how to interpret the data, which is going to help them whether they become a producer themselves or work with robots at an allied company.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The robots will provide a number of opportunities for research and learning across many disciplines outside of agriculture as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of our Dairy Innovation Hub faculty fellowships this year is exploring cybersecurity on the farm,\u201d said Montgomery. \u201cAll of the data we are collecting is in the cloud, so researchers can use the robots and the technology to teach their students about how we deal with the reality of cyberattacks in agriculture and what that means for our industry and the food chain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Montgomery cited other areas of potential collaboration, including construction management students studying the design and build of the systems and engineering students exploring the machine and learning how it interacts with the animals.<\/p>\n<p>Montgomery said the robotic milkers will enable more off-campus research collaborations as well, including on the federal level as plans are being made to work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Dairy Forage Research Center in Madison, Wisconsin.<\/p>\n<p>For more information about the Dairy Innovation Hub, a state-funded collaboration between UW-Platteville, UW-Madison and UW-River Falls to increase research, teaching and outreach offerings, visit\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.uwplatt.edu\/dairy-innovation-hub\">www.uwplatt.edu\/dairy-innovation-hub<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Written by Alison Parkins<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>University of Wisconsin-Platteville\u2019s\u00a0Pioneer Farm\u00a0is now home to two new state-of-the-art robotic milkers, enabling more opportunities for research and engagement across campus and the tri-state region. Funded through the\u00a0Dairy Innovation Hub, the two\u00a0Lely\u00a0A5 Astronaut robotic milkers were installed earlier this month and introduced to the nearly 200-cow herd at Pioneer Farm this week. UW-Platteville is currently [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":6596,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[93],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-6594","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-platteville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/6594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=6594"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=6594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}