After more than four years of research and development, a New Zealand dairy technology company has unveiled a robotic milking system to the dairy industry.
Chris Hopkins, a director on the board of Scott Milktech of Dunedin, said the company worked under a cloak of secrecy until this week's launch in Geraldine, so it could ensure its product was ready to hit the market.
He says the company did not want to promise something that it couldn't deliver on and it's taken some years to get to this point.
Mr Hopkins said that unlike some robotic milking systems, Scott Milktech's technology has been designed with New Zealand farmers in mind.
He said the key feature of the system that's been developed is that it will retrofit to an existing rotary platform, so it's designed for type of farming that's prevalent in New Zealand.
"Our system is an automated robot that will actually put the cups on the cow on a rotary platform," he said.
Mr Hopkins says the company is looking for a partner to help roll out its technology to dairy farms and expects the system will be in the market place by late next year.
