Requirements for automatic feeding systems in Southern Germany dairy farms

In recent years, automatic milking systems have found widespread use in southern Germany. For automatic feeding systems a similar trend is predicted. In an online survey, the technological and structural needs of farmers wereanalysed. It is revealed that the current situation and the desired situation on farms about feeding times differ from each other, which is a driving force. Most farmers feed twice a day(43%), fewer once a day(29%). 34 % of the respondents considerfeedingfour times a day and 31 % feedingthree timesa day as meaningful.It turns out that especially the technical reliabilityand safety for humans and animals are the “absolute priority” or “very important” for 92% bzw. 75%. Not a single respondent choose “undetermined” or “unimportant”. The first economic related priority is time savings. It shows that most people are not very familiar with automatic machinery and need to build up trust first, in advance to the known economic benefits.

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