Energy consumption and technical-economic analysis of an automatic feeding system for dairy farms : results from a field test

The need to reduce labour demand and the increasing size of herds have led - in the last years - to develop specific automated solutions for feeding animals in dairy farms. Currently there are more than 1250 automatic feeding systems (AFS) used worldwide, but there is a lack of information about both their energy requirements and management costs. The primary aim of the present study was to measure the electric energy consumption of an AFS installed in a dairy farm of Northern Italy under practical conditions. The secondary aim was to calculate, using the classic ASABE approach, the costs for preparing and distributing a total mixed ration (TMR) with the same AFS in comparison with the conventional feeding system (CFS) (tractor + TMR wagon) previously adopted by the farm. The average energy consumption of AFS over the experimental period (two months) was 40.2\ub12.3 kWh per day, 2.11\ub10.07 kWh per ton of TMR distributed and 29.6 kWh 19 cow\u20131 per year. Energy consumptions and labour were reduced respectively of 97% and 79% passing from a CFS (tractor + TMR wagon) to an AFS, contributing to reduce the daily cost for feeding TMR up to 33%. These results highlighting that AFS can represent an interesting option to improve competitiveness of dairy farms