How dairy robots are changing work for cows and farmers

Serious question: why would a dairy care about the cow's quality of life? The setup in the video looks far more expensive than what most dairies actually do, which is keeping cows tightly confined in stalls where they can't move at all.

> why would a dairy care about the cow's quality of life?

Believe it or not, most people who go into animal husbandry do so because they enjoy working with animals and care deeply about their welfare.

It's not so much about animal welfare. If there's a trade-off to be made between economics and animal welfare, the economics usually win out. Cattle would prefer to graze low density pastures, for example, but that's not compatible with the economic realities of modern dairy and it ends up limited to an insignificant portion of the market. Robots and automation solve problems for both the livestock and the dairy, so they're common.

saying that cow like pasture is you projecting you values on them. People study cows and near as they can tell cows don't care about wide open. Cows are herd animals and if they get plenty of feed in a barn with a few hundred other cows in their herd they are happy.

cows only moo when they are unhappy. I've been in barns with over 1000 cows and they are nearly silent. Cows in the wide open pasture moo all the time because of things they don't like.

Please watch the documentary “Cow”, by the author of movies “Fish tank” and “American Honey” (both are unrelated to animals btw)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_(2021_film)

There’s a scene where cows finally run out of the barn at the beginning of spring. Their joy is obvious.

A documentary? Really? They have a long tradition of setting up scenes to show the view they want you to see. There is some fact behind some, but there is no requirement that they be true.

Cows don't run out of the barn in any case I've ever seen - they walk. The young calfs run out, but not the older cows. (and maybe some of the young cows). If you typical cow is running it is because she is scared.