Digital Leaders went on a trip to see how technology is used in agriculture.
- This farm has 270 cows and 400 acres of land.
- 225 of the girls are milked twice a day.
- One of these milkings is at 3:30 am!
- The cows produce 6,000 litres of milk a day! Technology means they can get 20 litres of milk from the cows in 5 minutes! That's 4 litres per minute!
- This makes the farm about £2,000 a day but running the farm need to be paid from this amount.
- The milk goes towards Arla products.
Some of us wore a pedometer (that the cows wear on their leg) and walked through the scanner! These pedometers are government funded and saves 1/2 a persons annual labour. These pedometers measure the amount of milk the cow produces, medical history, light levels and creates a measured level of food based on this information which is automatically released in front of the cow so it can feed while it's milked!
Our 'cows' eating!
A disinfectant is manually applied to the cow udders before milking and then automatically released after the cows have been milked so that the 'suckers' stay clean. Mastitis is the most common infection for the farmer to deal with.
Some things on the farm do not use technology like this dial that shows which cows are calving and when! Colour coded little magnet cubes are used instead!
Data is drawn up on the computer after milking which then shows, in spread sheets, the cows performances.
The milk is transferred through pipes to the tank. One pipe felt warm, the other cold!
The teachers got to try the unpasteurised milk!
The food the cows eat is a mixture of molasses sugar, grass, maize, silage, vitamins, minerals and whole wheat crop.
We watched the tractor move around the field using sat nav to ensure the field is completely treated and quickly.
Finally, we went to see the calves just because they are cute!
Foot wash and back to school! 
Sounds like such a fascinating trip! Thank you!
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