WO2000060925A1

WO2000060925A1 - Method for milking animals

Info

Publication number: WO2000060925A1
Application number: PCT/NL2000/000221
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jacobus Petrus Maria Dessing; Pieter Adriaan Oosterling
Original assignee: Prolion B.V.
Priority date: 1999-04-08
Filing date: 2000-04-05
Publication date: 2000-10-19
Also published as: NL1011758C2

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for milking animals. According to the method, the measured shape of the udder is used to determine whether or not an animal is milked. If appropriate, the shape of the udder is established by measuring the positions of the teats. If the teat positions lie within an area which is defined for each animal, milking can take place.

Description

Method for milking animals

The invention relates to a method according to the preamble of Claim 1. Methods of this nature are known and are used for the automatic milking of cows using a so-called milking robot. When animals are being milked, it has been found that the animal which arrives at the milking device does not always have sufficient milk in the udder, for example because it has recently been milked or because the milk yield is too low, as may be the case at the end of lactation. Also, it is sometimes the case that although an animal has sufficient milk in the udder to allow it to be milked, it is not milked because the previous milking operation ended too recently.

The object of the invention is to avoid these drawbacks and, to this end, the method is carried out in accordance with the characterizing clause of claim 1. In this method, the shape of the udder and therefore how full the udder is can be established on the basis of, for example, the teat positions required for connection of the milking cups. Consequently, it is possible to decide to milk an animal on the basis of the fullness of the udder, which is of benefit to the milk yield.

The invention also comprises a method according to Claim 2. It has been found that this makes it easy to decide whether the udder is sufficiently full.

According to a further refinement, the method is carried out as described in Claim 3. In this way, the control criteria are adapted to the measured amount of milk, so that it is possible to take into account changes in shape of the udder during lactation.

The invention is explained below with reference to an exemplary embodiment.

An automatic milking device is placed in a cubicle shed. Cows which can walk around freely live in the cubicle shed. In the milking device, the cows are given food bait which stimulates them to enter the milking device.

The milking device is designed as a milking stall which the cow to be milked can enter and in which it can be enclosed. The milking stall is provided with a feeding trough into which the food bait is metered. A milking robot and a milking rack with milking cups are positioned along one of the long sides of the milking stall. The milking robot can be coupled to the milking rack and consequently can move the milking cups in such a manner that they are placed around the teats of the udder of a cow which is to be milked. The milking robot is provided with sensors which can be used to determine the positions of the teats of a cow which is present in the milking stall. These sensors can also be used to establish the position of the teats with respect to one another. A device as described above is known from various publications, including EP-A-0, 440, 313, the content of which is hereby deemed to form part of the present application. It has been found that the position of the teats with respect to one another provides an indication of whether the udder of an animal is suitable for milking at that time. If an udder has been milked empty, and if insufficient time has elapsed since this event, the udder is not yet sufficiently full of milk. This is usually apparent from the fact that the teats are very close together. Consequently, it is difficult and undesirable for the milking cups to be placed around the teats. In some cases, the emptiness of the udder is apparent from the fact that the teats project a long way outwards, which is also undesirable.

It has thus proven possible to determine whether the udder is suitable for milking, for example because there is sufficient milk in the udder, from the position of the teats. If the udder is suitable for milking, the teats of the udder are each located in a specific area, which areas have a characteristic location with respect to one another for the animal in question. As a result of the locations of the teats with respect to one another being measured using a suitable sensor after the animal to be milked has entered the milking stall, and as a result of this measurement data being compared with the areas which are stored in a memory which forms part of the control unit of the device, it is possible to establish whether the udder of an animal is suitable for milking, and consequently it can be decided whether the milking cups are placed around the teats. If the animal is not milked, it is allowed to leave the milking stall again as a result of the gates being opened. However, if the animal is to be milked, the milking cups are placed around the teats . The abovementioned areas within which the teats have to be positioned if an animal is to be suitable for milking are, for example, circles with a radius of 70 mm or square areas of 70 by 70 mm; these areas are selected in such a manner that the teats are located within these areas when the udder is just sufficiently full and when the udder is completely full. Which sides of each area the teats will be on outside the limits of the areas if the udder is too empty and/or too full can also be stored in the control unit. To ensure that the location and/or size of the areas stored in the memory are adapted on an ongoing basis to the changing shape of the udder during lactation, a program which carries out this adaptation is stored in the control unit. This program adapts the areas on the basis of the measured teat positions and the associated amount of milk in the udder, as established after the end of milking as the amount of milk which was taken from the udder. In doing so, it is always possible to carry out calculation on the basis of the last milking operation, but preferably the average over a number of milking operations is used.

Numerous variants of the way in which the method is carried out are possible in addition to the exemplary embodiment described above. It is possible to derive the readiness of an animal for milking from the shape of the udder in a different way. In this case, it is not the position of the teats which is measured, but rather the shape of the udder is determined through measuring its contour in one or more directions.

Claims

1. Method for milking animals, such as cows, using an automatic milking device with milking cups which, for milking, are placed automatically around the teats of the animal, the shape of the udder or the positions of the teats with respect to one another being measured before the milking cups are put in place, characterized in that it is established, on the basis of the shape of the udder, if appropriate established with the aid of the measured positions of the teats, whether the milking cups will be placed around the teats.

2. Method according to Claim 1, characterized in that the milking cups are put in place if the positions of the teats fall within areas which have been defined for the teats for the animal which is to be milked.

3. Method according to Claim 2, characterized in that the areas which are defined for the animal to be milked are adapted on the basis of the measured positions of the teats and the amount of milk which is taken thereafter.