• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.39-48
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• 2011

The present survey was conducted to provide basic information on automatic milking system (AMS) in relation to purchase motive, milk yield and quality, customer satisfaction, difficulties of operation and customer suggestions, etc. Purchase motives of AMS were insufficient labor (44%), planning of dairy experience farm (25%), better performance of high yield cows (19%) and others (6%), respectively. Average cow performance after using AMS was 30.9l/d for milk yield, 3.9% for milk fat, 9,100/ml for bacterial counts. Sixty-eight percentage of respondents were very positive in response to AMS use for their successors but 18% were negative. The AMS operators were owner (44%), successor (44%), wife (6%) and company worker (6%), respectively. The most difficulty (31%) in using AMS was operating the system and complicated program manual. The rate of response to system error and breakdown was 25%. The reasons for culling cow after using AMS were mastitis (28%), reproduction failure (19%), incorrect teat placement (12%), metabolic disease (7%) and others (14%), respectively. Fifty-six percentages of the respondents made AMS maintenance contract and 44% did not. Average annual cost of the maintenance contract was 6,580,000 won. Average score for AMS satisfaction measurement (1 to 5 range) was 3.2 with decrease of labor cost 3.7, company A/S 3.6, increase of milk yield 3.2 and decrease of somatic cell count 2.8, respectively. Suggestions for the higher efficiency in using AMS were selecting cows with correct udder shape and teat placement, proper environment, capital and land, and attitude for continuous observation. Systematic consulting was highly required for AMS companies followed by low cost for AMS setup and systematization of A/S.