Functional properties of the cow's udder during voluntary milking, depending on the lactation period and the brand of the milking robot

Robotization has the highest value among all areas of improvement and development of domestic dairy cattle breeding. Robotization is considered one of the promising ones, it provides an additional opportunity to benefit from the establishment of a highly profitable production process for the production of milk. Thanks to the modern technological process of active introduction into production, there is not only an increase in the quality and useful characteristics of the products, but also an increase in the level of their implementation. The use of a voluntary milking system allows for a more comfortable stay of the animal in the process of milking, reduces the stress of the animal and largely satisfies its physiological needs, which requires a comprehensive and systematic approach to the selection and selection of animals. Compared to tethering and milking in a stall, the improvements provide a significant reduction in labor resources. In addition, this makes it possible to maximize the available genetic potential of the dairy herd, to carry out work on the automation of zootechnical accounting, to improve sanitary and hygienic indicators when receiving milk of the highest quality according to the requirements of world standards. Today there are over 600 milking robots at the agricultural enterprises of various capacities and forms of ownership - at least in 34 regions of the Russian Federation. In the Urals Federal District there are milking complexes and farms that use voluntary milking systems. The Sverdlovsk and Tyumen oblasts were the first to adopt the system of voluntary milking. The leading representatives of the domestic market by the number of units of supplied robotics are considered: DeLaval (Sweden, about 40% in the Russian market), Lely Industries N.V. (Netherlands, more than 30% in Russia), GEA Farm Technologies (Germany, more than 10%), S.A. Christensen & Co (Denmark), Fullwood Ltd (UK), BouMatic Robotics (USA), Insentec (Netherlands).