Automatic milking process and device

Animal husbandry – Milkers – With automatic control

Patent

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Details

119 142, 119 1417, 119 1444, 119 1449, 119 1455, 119 1446, 119 1436, 119 1437, A01J 504

Patent

active

061520764

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention refers to a method and a device for automatically extracting milk with the aid of a milking unit, in the case of which milk is extracted from the teat in a suction cycle with the aid of the milking vacuum applied below the teat via a long milk hose, a collecting piece and a teat cup, and in the case of which the teat rubber of the teat cup clings softly to the teat for relieving the teat during a relief cycle.


BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In conventional automatic milk extraction processes, a so-called nominal vacuum is applied to the milk discharge line which is fixedly installed in the stable and in the milking palor, respectively. This nominal milking vacuum is used for extracting milk from the teat on the one hand, and for discharging the extracted milk on the other. How high the vacuum actually is, which is effective below the teat at certain moments, depends on a plurality of factors, especially, however, on the cross-section of the long milk hose on the one hand and on the magnitude of the milk flow from a cow, which is extracted from the teat, on the other. Hence, long milk hoses adapted to the maximum cow milk flow to be expected should, in principle, be used for an optimum adjustment of the vacuum below the teat during the suction and relief cycles. In view of the fact that, in most cases, several cows are milked successively making use of the same milking unit, the inevitably resulting circumstances will not permit optimum milking. If long milk hoses having an insufficient interior cross-section, which may be the optimum milk hoses for a specific cow having a low flow of milk, are e.g. used, this may, on the one hand, have the effect that, for the next cow having a higher flow of milk, the milk discharge capacity is not sufficiently high so that an undesirable accumulation of milk occurs, and, on the other hand, it may have the effect that the milking vacuum below the teat becomes so low that the pressure relief of the teat will no longer be sufficient or that, in extreme cases, the teat cups will even fall off. If, however, long milk hoses having a very large interior cross-section, which would be optimally adapted to cows having a very high flow of milk, are used, the use of this milking unit for cows having a low flow of milk may have the effect that an excessively high vacuum occurs below the teat during the relief cycle and this would necessarily cause damage to the teat in the long run. In order to achieve the best possible adaptation, long milk hoses having at least nine different interior cross-sections are therefore available on the market, viz. hoses having interior diameters between 8 and 16 mm, the difference from one hose to the next being 1 mm.
Hence, it is the object of the present invention to improve this situation.


SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In the case of a method of the type mentioned above, this object is achieved in accordance with a first solution according to the present invention in that a long milk hose is used, which has a large interior cross-section permitting the discharge of high flows of milk, and that, during the relief cycle, the flow cross-section of the milk discharge system of the milking unit is controlled at a predetermined point in dependence upon the pressure prevailing below the teat. The control can also be effected in such a way that a desired value is predetermined for the negative pressure desired below the teat, and that the flow cross-section of the milk discharge system is controlled in such a way that the best possible adaptation to said desired value is achieved in accordance with a control operation.
Since the method starts from a long milk hose having an interior cross-section which would, in principle, be the optimum cross-section for high flows of milk, the vacuum at the teat will increase during the relief cycle in the case of lower flows of milk in comparison with this starting point. This can be counteracted by reducing the flow cross-section of the milk discharge system of the milking unit

REFERENCES:
patent: 3756198 (1973-09-01), Rudle
patent: 3759226 (1973-09-01), Rudle et al.
patent: 3783837 (1974-01-01), Olander
patent: 4280446 (1981-07-01), Noorlander
patent: 4516530 (1985-05-01), Resisgies et al.
patent: 4907535 (1990-03-01), Matsuzaqa et al.
patent: 5052341 (1991-10-01), Woolford et al.
patent: 5090359 (1992-02-01), Petteson et al.
patent: 5218924 (1993-06-01), Thompson et al.
patent: 5720236 (1998-02-01), Carrano et al.

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