Interesting story in today's NYT on a growing agribusiness trend in Canada and the US — robotic milking:
"Rising labor costs, problems with conventional milking methods and a desire for more flexibility have persuaded dozens of farmers in Canada and a handful in the United States to follow the lead of thousands of European dairy farmers in turning the crucial part of their operation to machines.'Right now in North America, robotic milking falls on the expensive end of the ways to milk cows,' said Douglas J. Reinemann, an associate professor of biological systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin who heads the school's milking research and instruction lab. 'But the very strong impression you get on every robot farm is that it's a much nicer place – not just for the people but the cows as well.'"
