I am quite sure that one of the more endearing and lasting images of a farm that we have seen to date is not Ol’ McDonald and his animals, but rather, someone sitting on a small stool while chatting away to the cow way before the dawn is awakened, milking said cow in a rhythmic and soothing manner. Well, we are now in the 21st century, and if you were to drop by the barn at Farr Farm in Richmond, you would notice that the dairy cows with full udders who are housed there would be queueing up to be milked throughout the day and night.
Not only that, there would be a nary a human soul around, since the farm itself would fall back on the use of a robotic milker. For select cows, they could even be milked up to 5 times a day, and it certainly helps the farmer to be more productive. Ashley Farr (no prizes for guessing which farm falls under that name) said, “It allows me to be flexible. You can feed the cows at 2 in the afternoon and go to your kid’s ball game or school concert, and then come back at 8 at night and check them again.” Thing is, there might not be that kind of bond between the cow and farmer any more if the cold steel of a robot were to be implemented widely across the world in the near future.
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