Calves are always hungry, so it is unnatural to a cow to be milked only twice a day, but willing milkmaids are a thing of the past, so, reports the Financial Times, the Agricultural & Food Research Council in Swindon is applying robotics and artificial intelligence to the problem, designing an automated that will enable the cows to wander up and be milked when they feel like it: the cow wanders up to the gate of the pen, identifying itself with a radio transmitter attached to its ear or neck, and once the cow is inside, the computer adjusts the pen to the size of the cow to keep it still, and sends back data to the robotic arm to tell it where to look for the teats, and once it has found them it attaches the equipment and starts milking – and the system will no doubt be the subject of disgusting and prurient jokes and sketches in agricultural college revues for years to come.
