Are Dairy Robots the Secret to Happier Cows and More Efficient Farms? (spectrum.ieee.org)
from Tea@programming.dev to technology@lemmy.world on 02 Apr 2025 00:56
https://programming.dev/post/27912987

#technology

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recall519@lemm.ee on 02 Apr 2025 01:31 next collapse

I don’t know. You tell me, headline.

Empricorn@feddit.nl on 02 Apr 2025 03:16 collapse

That’s not its job. It’s supposed to grab you. And hug you. Like a cow…

Maeve@kbin.earth on 02 Apr 2025 01:40 next collapse

I was skeptical - really skeptical. Then I read the article and cheered. Thank you.

PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca on 02 Apr 2025 02:32 next collapse

My wife’s cousins dairy farm has one of these robots. It’s like a big roomba that dispenses hay. The cows love that machine lol. He also has an automated cow hugger and cows walk up to get squeezed by this machine. It’s pretty cool.

Empricorn@feddit.nl on 02 Apr 2025 07:06 next collapse

Okay, I joked in another comment, but I have to know more about this cow-hugging machine!

echodot@feddit.uk on 02 Apr 2025 08:59 next collapse

There’s a phone near me and they have two rotating brushes. They look like the things that wash your car in a drive in car wash, except with bristles rather than floppy mops.

magic_smoke@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 02 Apr 2025 10:22 collapse

Wtf why do all the good jobs keep getting take by fucking robots.

I don’t want to dick with excel sheets, pay me to hug cows.

bluGill@fedia.io on 02 Apr 2025 14:48 next collapse

Cows are big and will accidentally kick you breaking ribs, or otherwise injure you. They are mostly safe, but there is a reason farming is one of the most dangerous jobs.

magic_smoke@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 02 Apr 2025 15:17 collapse

Oof owchie my ribs

ivanafterall@lemmy.world on 03 Apr 2025 20:37 collapse

Best I can do is pay you to dick cows?

technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 02 Apr 2025 15:52 next collapse

Sounds like paradise!!! \s \s \s jfc.

PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca on 02 Apr 2025 16:34 collapse

You’re right. It’s horrible and evil and I should disavow both my wife and her cousin for participating in such a thing and burn the entire thing down and free the cows 🤡

x00z@lemmy.world on 02 Apr 2025 22:53 collapse

Awesome. Please do that.

No need to live between selfish people.

PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca on 03 Apr 2025 10:58 collapse

Haha you extremists are wild.

x00z@lemmy.world on 03 Apr 2025 16:24 collapse

You are even worse bud.

slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org on 03 Apr 2025 08:53 collapse

We take your milk and your child, here is a robot that hugs you.

joshchandra@midwest.social on 02 Apr 2025 03:21 next collapse

Absolutely fascinating and promising. Thanks for sharing. Any downvoters clearly didn’t read the article.

Zoldyck@lemmy.world on 02 Apr 2025 07:28 next collapse

No. Go vegan if you actually care about animals

NoisyFlake@lemm.ee on 02 Apr 2025 08:11 collapse

For real, this has nothing to do with animal welfare. The cows still get forcefully impregnated every so often and have their calves taken away, just so you can drink their milk. Supermarkets are full of tasty plant milk variants, yet most people still see the need to let cows suffer instead.

lennivelkant@discuss.tchncs.de on 02 Apr 2025 10:22 collapse

Oat is GOAT

(The acronym, not the animal)

I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world on 03 Apr 2025 04:45 collapse

I am 100% not a vegan. I eat meat and cheese and eggs and pretty much all animal products. So hear me when I say I regularly grab oat milk when I’m at the store.

It’s not just the best milk substitute, it is better than regular milk.

nsrxn@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 03 Apr 2025 12:16 next collapse

I evaluate basically all my food with what I call “hotdog math”. my wife hates it. my local gas station sells hotdogs at 2/$1. the free toppings can push the calories count near 550, but I know nothing comes close, so I round down to 500. milk beats oatmilk on hotdog math, and carries a wider diversity of nutrients, to boot.

NoisyFlake@lemm.ee on 03 Apr 2025 19:54 next collapse

Cow milk is usually only cheaper because of subsidies, otherwise it would be much more expensive.

nsrxn@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 03 Apr 2025 20:19 collapse

I don’t know how this can be verified, nor does it matter at the point of sale

lennivelkant@discuss.tchncs.de on 04 Apr 2025 04:16 collapse

Your wife is right to hate it. It’s rather shallow and narrow-minded.

That aside, if calories-to-price is your metric, are you growing your own food?

nsrxn@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 04 Apr 2025 04:20 collapse

if calories-to-price is your metric

it’s a metric for food I buy, and anything less convenient that a gas station hot dog that costs now power calorie is a hard sell. I don’t live on has station hot dogs, but they are, in my opinion, a good standard for convenience food value.

I also drink soylent, which is only like half as good as hotdogs, but the nutrient balance is incredible.

my wife says my spreadsheets are how farmers feed cattle.

lennivelkant@discuss.tchncs.de on 04 Apr 2025 04:19 collapse

My milk ranking:

Almond < Dairy < Soy < Oat

I rarely drink any milk at all, but when I do, it’s gotta be oat.

(Also not a vegan, but that doesn’t have anything to do with my taste here)

DrunkenPirate@feddit.org on 02 Apr 2025 11:16 next collapse

There have been robots for cows for years. It‘s the SHIT PUSHER ROBOT. It‘s pushing away the straw and shit all the day. That’s useful automation imho.

Edit: And a feeding machine is know for years as well. Same with the hugging brushes.

Call it a „robot“ and it gives you an article in the IEEE magazine and promotes your startup. What a shit show.

Editedit: Ok, read the article. It’s more a „Hey look how much automation is in a cow barn already“

The life of a cow becomes much more free and comfortable. Somehow it reminds me of the life of a human working and living in a modern society. (Not sure, if we recognize the fences around us and still call it freedom)

lemmy_acct_id_8647@lemmy.world on 02 Apr 2025 14:10 next collapse

No. Not raping and abusing them for selfish human wants makes cows happier. This is the stupidest shit ever.

nsrxn@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 02 Apr 2025 17:09 next collapse

no one is raping cows

lemmy_acct_id_8647@lemmy.world on 02 Apr 2025 20:52 next collapse

Someone doesn’t know how dairy farms work…

nsrxn@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 03 Apr 2025 00:36 next collapse

I do.

slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org on 03 Apr 2025 08:52 collapse

So then explain why cows give milk. Do they just give milk for no reason and want nothing more for humans to get ice cream. Or do they get impregnated and their milk and child stolen?

lemmy_acct_id_8647@lemmy.world on 03 Apr 2025 13:43 collapse

Not engaging with the carnists but you nailed it.

[deleted] on 02 Apr 2025 21:54 next collapse

.

jennraeross@lemmy.world on 03 Apr 2025 00:05 next collapse

Cows cannot consent to insemination by humans. And yet that’s what the industry runs on (as well as taking their babies from them so we can have the milk instead, causing the poor mothers severe emotional distress). It’s messed up.

nsrxn@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 03 Apr 2025 00:36 collapse

it’s not rape. it’s a veterinary procedure

jennraeross@lemmy.world on 03 Apr 2025 04:23 collapse

The two are not mutually exclusive

nsrxn@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 03 Apr 2025 11:26 collapse

yes, they are.

DancingBear@midwest.social on 03 Apr 2025 01:49 collapse

Speak for yourself!

pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip on 04 Apr 2025 03:09 collapse

Thanks for that mental image… Dancing Bear.

Cocopanda@futurology.today on 03 Apr 2025 11:16 collapse

I lived on a dairy farm. They are not abused like cattle for beef production. And are you saying in-fertilization is rape? Because I mean. Normal Stud mounting is far worse than an arm up ones vagina.

technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 02 Apr 2025 15:51 next collapse

Imagine believing that carnists profiting from torture, murder, and environmental destruction give a shit about happier cows.

SplashJackson@lemmy.ca on 02 Apr 2025 21:08 next collapse

No

collapse_already@lemmy.ml on 02 Apr 2025 22:21 collapse

Betteridge’s law applies. The answer to a yes-no headline question is always no.

aeharding@vger.social on 03 Apr 2025 05:01 collapse

Anyone else watch 10th generation dairyman?