What do custom-blend teat dips and low-profile parlor stalls have in common? They’re two of the newest products recently rolled out by GEA at the World Dairy Expo.

The company, which is best known for its DairyProQ robotic rotary — one of which is on a farm in western New York — was busy in Madison, Wis., earlier this month, rolling out three brand-new products and updating three others.

New products include low-profile stalls, custom-blend teat dips and an automated sprayer for those teat dips.

“What we’re trying to do is find products that fit a solution for dairy producers,” says Robin Matthayasack, director of marketing for GEA Farm Technologies Inc. “So a lot of dairymen need to milk more cows, maybe in the same facility. It’s about efficiency. It’s about comfort … and it’s about technology.”

New dips and stalls

The new Intelliblend XP teat dip blending system can precisely blend teat dip products without calibration, all in one system.

For example, you can pre-dip with hydrogen peroxide and post-dip with iodine while also adjusting the skin conditioning package to meet current herd and weather conditions. Intelliblend has 21 pre-programmed formulas, including some of GEA’s flagship teat dips.

INTELLIGENT SPRAYS: The new Intellispray XP is a walk-over spray that uses sensors to track cows as they walk through it for maximum spray accuracy

When you’re ready to treat those teats, you can do it using the new Intellispray XP, a walk-over spray that uses sensors to track cows as they walk through it for maximum spray accuracy. It’s customizable. so a producer can adjust spray duration and pressure. It works with iodine, chlorine dioxide and hydrogen peroxide teat dips.

“This is really for labor efficiency,” Matthayasack says. “This sprays cows on the way into the parlor or out of the parlor. It provides labor savings, is efficient and saves money.”

The company is also rolling out the new Magnum LPS and Global LPS low-profile stalls that can be retrofitted to any brand parlor, are customizable and have a vertical-lift rapid exit. The Magnum is for individual indexing of cows, while the Global is for group indexing, Matthayasack explains.

Upgrades to old products

GEA’s CowScout neck collars now come with positioning. This is done, Matthayasack explains, via beacons that show a producer exactly where a cow is in the barn. That data is accessible via smartphone, computer or tablet.

“It’s very accurate, within a couple of feet, to find out where the cow is, so you can find her precisely in the barn and don’t disrupt the others,” she says. “It’s particularly applicable in robot situations to get fetch cows.”

UPGRADED ROBOT: The R9500 box-style milking robot has been upgraded with new software, easier serviceability and faster throughput.

The R9500 box-style milking robot has been upgraded with new software, easier serviceability and faster throughput.

The company has also upgraded its Hardox 450 PTO manure pumps for GEA 8-inch and 10-inch PTO pumps.

With states such as New York and California passing more restrictive labor laws and many people still not taking jobs, Matthayasack says it’s making robotic installations more appealing, especially for large farms.

“We expect it to continue. Labor is hard to find, semi-automated or robotics is growing. Pre-dips can be utilized to parlor labor more efficiently,” she says. “We’re really excited to bring a lot of new products to market. Obviously, we missed a year last year, and we were really excited to come this year.”