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Amongst the 21,000 Dutch dairy farms lies the very innovative McDonald flagship farm of Anton Stokman: a newly built 240-cow place dairy facility featuring a mix of modern technology and longstanding good practices.

1) The farm is a major advocate of robotic milking. The whole milking operation is automated with four Lely robotic Milking machines. This leaves staff more time to monitor the cows and freeing them from this time-consuming task. It also benefits cows by allowing them to choose when they are milked. Depending on the stage of lactation and yield this can be anything from two to five times per day. There is also an improvement in milk yields due to the increased milking frequency. All the cows are individually identified by a microchip which is inserted inside a neck collar that the cows wear. As they enter the stall they are immediately identified by the computer, which calculates whether the cow needs to be milked or not. If the cow requires milking she is fed a pre-determined amount of food and then the robotic milker’s laser system scans the cows' teats, cleans them and automatically attaches the clusters. There are several benefits to this system, the major benefit being that each quarter of the udder is milked individually. Other aspects such as milking speed, milk conductivity and yield are monitored, and this information is then used as an early warning method for any potential health problems that may occur.

2) The whole ethos of robotic milking also readily feeds into the concept of a ‘Free Choice’ system for the cows, as they can decide when they want to be milked, feed and rest.

3) The farm notably provides an outdoor grass loafing area for the cows during the spring/summer period. The cows are offered this ‘Free Choice’ and can access the loafing area whilst still being able to return to the building for milking and feeding.

4) Cubicles are provided for resting, and animals have the freedom to move to the feeding area on an open floor. Manure is primarily deposited onto a solid floor that is frequently scraped or flushed or a slatted floor from which manure drains between the slats into a pit below. A new floor design has been incorporated, with a gutter feature allowing improved separation of urine and faeces. The urine drains into the gutters away from the faeces and therefore reduces the amount of mixing that occurs. This separation reduces the level of ammonia emissions from the slurry by a minimum of 30% over conventional flooring types, which is an extremely important factor and will help the farm reduce its overall ammonia emissions.

5) Water beds have been chosen as the lying option for the dairy cows, within a “Dual chamber” system. These specifically provide a cushioned area for the cow’s knees (which is especially important to the cow when laying
and standing) and a separate pocket for the body and hind legs. Other bedding materials, like crushed rubber and canvas foam beds, can form compressed pockets allowing pools of urine and milk to collect which provide conditions allowing bacteria to grow and can cause environmental mastitis. As the dual chamber waterbed returns to its original convex manufactured shape, moisture flows away from the bed surface, not only providing a drier more hygienic bed but also meaning that the requirement for bedding material is reduced.
Several studies have shown that waterbeds provide a surface which reduces the incidence of injury, and provide consistent long term comfort, over other forms of bedding materials.

And this is not all. Future plans include the construction of an
anaerobic digester on the farm, which will process all the cow slurry (other waste products may be included). The methane produced from this system will then be piped to the processing
dairy where it will be used as a flammable gas (in conjunction with natural gas) to heat water to produce steam required by the dairy. The farm is also applying to the Dutch government’s Environmental Department to approve the new ‘free choice dairy system’ with a special green facility mark, which, if granted, will mean this is the first dairy farm to achieve
this accreditation mark.