The cows who milk themselves

Available for over a year

How a herd of hundreds is helping future-proof a Worcestershire family farm, courtesy of a workforce of robots. The Richards’ family farm features three generations of farmers, who all grew up around the village of Wichenford. Their cows are milked by a series of robotic milkers, the product of a £120,000 investment which has improved milk efficiency and animal welfare. Dave runs the farm, with his son Max in tow. They show Elliott Webb around the systems which use cameras to map the cows’ teets before attaching automatically, and rejecting cows who advance too soon since their last visit, to avoid over-milking.