AMS Galaxy USA — an American robotic dairy farm manufacturing company with dealerships across the United States — announces a first-of-its-kind Automatic High Moisture Corn Feeding System specifically designed for their milking robot, the Galaxy Astrea 20.20 (www.amsgalaxyusa.com).
The company’s introduction of this new patent-pending hopper and dispensing technology will allow Galaxy robot owners the ability to automatically feed a ration of High Moisture Corn (HMC) to herds in place of more costly pellet feed.
BENEFITS OF FEEDING HMC
Feeding HMC presents an enormous opportunity for farmers to save money, but until now the challenge in handling HMC via robotic milking operations has outweighed the cost savings and other benefits. When harvested, stored, and managed correctly it has many desirable qualities. It is palatable, nutritious, available, and according to Penn State Extension research a typical cost of production on Pennsylvania farms is approximately $60 per ton for HMC feed, as opposed to up to $340 per ton for pelleted feed, making it more affordable than pelleted feed. (https://extension.psu.edu/a-high-moisture-corn-feeding-system-for-roboticmilking)
“This concept has an enormous opportunity for our farmers to save money without sacrificing production or animal well-being, but there is a huge challenge in handling the HMC,” says Brad Biehl, President of AMS Galaxy USA and co-inventor of the HMC system. “To maximize the nutritional benefits of high moisture corn, it should be harvested between 25-28% moisture, run through a hammermill to have it ground into small particles, and then stored for fermentation. But this creates a feed that does not flow well in traditional robotic feeding technology, not to mention it has a short shelf life when exposed to air. Our new system was designed to overcome that obstacle, making HMC a viable solution to robotic milking operations.”
Features of HMC feeding with the AMS Galaxy system include:
• Highly desirable HMC replaces costly pellets and drives the cows to the milking robot.
• Substantial cost savings (and thus greater profits). Initial testing has shown a potential $4,528.00 per month* saving of feed cost in a 129-cow robotic dairy. (https://extension.psu.edu/a-high-moisture-corn-feeding-system-for-robotic-milking)
• Palatability is better than most robot pellet blends.
• Cows can eat HMC faster than dry grain commodity mixes.
• Farm-raised product, farm-stored product; no trucking/delivery issues or costs.
• Highly available starch.
• No bridging or clogging.
*Based on data from Penn State Extension; 129-cow dairy, 30-day average cost saving.
When used in combination with the AMS Galaxy Astrea milking robot, the new HMC Feeder delivers greatly increased profit potential, greater health of animals, and minimal to no additional modifications to existing barn structures.
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AMS Galaxy USA (www.amsgalaxyusa.com) is an industry leader in the development of total farm solutions for dairy farms. The company combines the human capital of its engineers and agricultural technical staff to create and deploy advanced technologies, which create the optimal production conditions for dairy cows & calves and goats, with essential considerations for animal well-being. Robotic milking solutions range from those needed in small family dairies (less than 100 cows) to large group-milking dairies (1,000+ cows), automated feeding, automatic bedding, cow comfort products, and Herd Monitoring/Total Farm Automation software products. Visit AMS Galaxy USA at World Ag Expo® Online at http://bit.ly/WAE21-AMSGalaxy.