Sydney:
It's the biggest advance in dairy farming since milking by hand gave way to the milking machine.
An Australian team has created a completely robotic milking system that can accommodate hundreds of cows at any one time. The system is incentive based and allows cows to be milked without human attendance, relieving the farmer of their early morning duties.
Cows choose when to walk in from the paddock to feed on grain. The robotic arms wash the animal on entry and attach a cupping device to the udders.
The milk is monitored for quality and cases of mastitis and the teats are sprayed as the cow exits into an adjoining pasture.
The system's design comes from Sydney University, funded by farmer levies, government grants, and investment from Swedish dairy equipment company DeLaval.
Research leader Dr Kendra Kerrisk says while robotic dairies operate elsewhere, it's only now that the technology has been developed for Australia's far bigger herds and rotary milking operations.
"The automatic systems that currently exist have a limitation in Australia because they can only milk one cow at a time and small groups of cows, 80 cows per robot, whereas here we're talking hundreds of cows."
When the cows choose to be milked key data is recorded into computer software indicating yields and general movement of the herd.
The whole system operates without a human in sight.
Researchers say it won't be cheap to automate dairy farms, but the price will be offset by higher milk production, lower labour costs and as farmers say, a more reasonable workload.
Max Roberts spokesman from Dairy Farmers Australia said the technology would significantly change the average farmer's day.
"It's about now being able to take the kids to footy, be home for a meal, attract young people to it, in other words it becomes a more socially acceptable industry to be in."
Using this prototype, a fully operational robotic rotary has now been engineered in Sweden. Over the coming year DeLaval will install the first two commercial systems on dairy farms in Australia.
Industry representatives gathered together for the unveiling of a plaque to celebrate the system.