Most of the dairy farms in Alberta have free stall barns and milking parlours.
There are many factors that go into choosing a parlour type; however in Alberta, for the most part, herringbone or parallel parlour designs are used. Some of the larger farms use rotary parlours.
Recently, there are an increasing number of farms that are installing Voluntary Milking Systems (VMS), which offer cows a choice of when they want to be milked.
No matter what type of parlour is chosen, each system records the data on each cow, like how much much she is producing.