Invited review: Hygienic quality, composition, and technological performance of raw milk obtained by robotic milking of cows

摘要

Automatic milking systems (AMS), first introducedon dairy farms in the 1990s, rapidly spread across manycountries. This technology is based on the voluntarymilking of dairy cattle in a completely automatedprocess, which relies on computer management, with asubstantial average increase in milking frequency. Comparedwith conventional milking, AMS significantlyalters herd management, with important implicationson economic, technical, and social aspects of farming,on animal physiology, health, and well-being. These aspectsare explored in an extensive body of research. Incontrast, the effects of AMS adoption on milk qualityare often overlooked. This review draws together bothpositive and negative effects of AMS on the milk productionchain, particularly emphasizing the variationsof hygienic and compositive characteristics of raw milkand their interplay, as compared with milk obtainedwith conventional milking. Scattered and sometimesconflicting literature exists on whether and how thesevariations may influence quality and yield of the deriveddairy products. Current scientific knowledge on thesecrucial aspects is thus reviewed, with particular focuson milk technological suitability for being processedinto dairy products having the target characteristics interms of taste, structure, on-storage stability, and sustainability.Provided the managing conditions are optimized,AMS allow increased milk production, mostlydue to more frequent milking, without compromisingthe milk characteristics that are crucial to food industryfor processing. Nevertheless, specific biochemicalaspects related to the changed milking interval, whichdetermines the duration of enzyme activities and bacterialgrowth in milk, need further research.