On 28-29 November 2023, the International Dairy Federation hosted the IDF Milking Technologies Symposium online. The event had over 150 registrants from 35 different countries around the world. From those, there were 38 students who benefited from the free student registration offered by IDF. During two days, the attendees participated in the sessions delivered by the 26 experts, which included both guest speakers and selected speakers from abstract submissions.
The symposium was divided into three main sessions:
(1) Milking machine technology: design, efficiency and testing
(2) Dairy health and welfare in sustainable milking systems
(3) Farm management and dairy business in milking systems.
The symposium also included several flash presentations and a photo story contest. “Milking technologies play a pivotal role in modern dairy farming by enhancing efficiency and productivity. Proper milking systems that are well adjusted to the animal and the farmer streamline the milking process, ensuring consistent milk quality and reducing labour demand. These technologies also contribute to animal welfare by providing a more comfortable and stress-free milking environment, ultimately supporting sustainable and profitable dairy operations”, said IDF Director General, Caroline Emond, during the event opening.Best oral and flash presentations & best photo story.Two awards for the best oral and flash presentations were granted during the IDF Milking Technologies Symposium. The presentations were of outstanding high quality, both in the support used by the presenters as well as the ability of the presenters to get their message across.The best oral presentation prize was granted to Anna Schwanke, PhD student at the University of Guelph in Canada, for her presentation on “Impact of dairy cow personality traits and concentrate allowance on the adaptability, behaviour, and production of dairy cows trained to use a free-traffic automated milking system“The best flash presentation prize was awarded to Fiona Louise Guinan, PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States, for her presentation on the “Impact of dairy cow personality traits and concentrate allowance on the adaptability, behaviour, and production of dairy cows trained to use a free-traffic automated milking system”.The best photo story was granted to Dr Sabine Ferneborg, Postdoctoral fellow, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway.Did you miss the event?Those who missed the event can access the recordings of sessions on demand, which are available on the IDF e-Shop here.IDF Mastitis Conference in 2025 The next related event will be the IDF Mastitis Conference in 2025 in Sweden. The event will be a perfect opportunity for listening to and discussing the most recent news in the area of milk extraction and mastitis.