147. Where necessary, the dairy farmer should upgrade the specification of the milking machine to ensure that damage to teats and vacuum instability is within recommended tolerances. This will require specialist advice (paragraph 176).
148. New installations or major refurbishments should be independently tested to ensure correct installation and operation. There are minimum levels specified in the British Standard for Milking Machine Installations (paragraph 177).
149. Buildings should be designed to enable the cows to enter and leave the milking parlour with a minimum of difficulty or stress. Collection and dispersal areas to and from the milking parlour should allow unhindered movement on non-slip floors. Stall dimensions should be suitable for the size of cattle being milked (paragraph 179).
150. Robotic milking units should only be installed if there is ready and speedy access to a suitably qualified maintenance engineer. An independent generator, of a size and capacity for powering the machine and ancillary equipment, or other means of preventing unnecessary pain or unnecessary distress, must be readily available in the event of electricity supply failure (paragraph 185).
151. It is imperative that the information provided by the recording system of a robotic milker is carefully monitored at least twice daily and appropriate action taken (paragraph 186).
152. Robotic milkers should not be installed solely to reduce labour costs but considered as a means to allow better targeting of labour towards essential stockmanship tasks (paragraph 187).