In Finland adapting automatic milking is usually done due to social reasons. Loose barn dimension recommendations have changed considerably during the past fifteen years. This makes adapting automatic milking in older barns challenging. In an automatic milking barn cows should be able to act as voluntarily as possible.

Besides visiting the milking robot, feeding and resting behavior are important success factors. Earlier studies show no significant difference on resting time or milk yield between Finnish and minimum stocking density (stalls/cow) recommendations. Idle standing and displacements on a feed barrier increase during feeding peaks between Finnish and minimum feeding space recommendations. However similar occupancy rates indicate no substantial change in cow behavior.

In this thesis four farms, which had adapted automatic milking in old barns, were theme interviewed. These farms had successfully adapted automatic milking in terms of daily milkings, milk yield and labor needs (fetched cows). Differences in free space in front of the robot (2-5.5m) didn’t impact on daily milkings per cow (2.7±0.1) between the farms. Neither a special needs area with voluntary access on a robot nor permanent holding area was found necessary. Besides the lack of space, other compromises weren’t found problematic.

The aim of this thesis was to create a barn layout, suitable for automatic milking, for Mäkelä’s existing barn. The plan contains 62 slots for cows and 55 slots for young cattle. In the plan cow comfort improves or remains the same. Separate section for dry cows improves cow comfort considerably. It’s possible to adapt automatic milking on Mäkelä’s farm, although milking robot can’t be used at maximum capacity. Lower occupancy rate improves milk yield per cow via increased number of daily milkings and more stable milking intervals.