How dairy robots are changing work for cows and farmers

China famously now has "dark factories" where everything is automated, so lighting is not needed.

Guess this means we're about to have "dark dairies" where cows can be kept chained up in perpetual darkness, with robots doing the absolute minimum required to keep them alive, pregnant and producing milk.

I know this is not a particularly pleasant thought, but I'd like to hear counterarguments about why this wouldn't happen, since to me it seems market pressures will otherwise drive dairies in this direction.

(For what it's worth, I'm not a vegan, but a visit to a regular human-run dairy sufficiently confident in its practices to conduct tours for the public was almost enough to put me off dairy products for good.)

"Lights out manufacturing" has been a thing around the world for literally decades. This is not new. The main "problem" is feeding the machines enough raw material and removing finished parts so they can keep running without human intervention. Not surprisingly, there are now robots for that.

https://www.machinemetrics.com/blog/lights-out-manufacturing

As far as why your scenario wouldn't happen: why would it? You can dream up anything you like, doesn't mean it makes sense.

All things being equal, why would you pay for lighting if you don't need it?

it’s mentioned many times in the linked article happy cows produce more milk