Where there is a milking robot, there is also (at least) a pellet concentrate feed. It is commonly believed that the success of automatic milking depends on the amount of concentrate dispensed during visits to the robot—and it is in particular believed that larger amounts of concentrate dispensed at the robot lead to increases in both the number of voluntary visits and in the milk production. Through a survey conducted on several farms in the Piedmont region, we set out to verify the truth of these claims. The results were extremely surprising: increasing the amount of dispensed feed at the robot did not always lead to an improved farm performance, and excellent results were achieved with minimal amounts of concentrate feed.

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