Animal husbandry – Milkers – Methods of milking
Patent
1998-07-01
1999-08-03
Price, Thomas
Animal husbandry
Milkers
Methods of milking
A01J 700
Patent
active
059311150
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of milking animals by the use of at least one milking apparatus. The invention also relates to a milking apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Milking machines for milking of animals are continuously developed to more and more sophisticated fully automatic milking machines, which include a robot provided to automatically apply the teatcups of the milking machine to the teats of an animal. This is not an easy task and since the animals are living beings their behaviour when entering a milking station may never be fully predictable. Therefore when designing the robot of the milking machine one has for example to consider that the udder and the teats of the animal always may move. In recent time this has resulted in a development towards a constantly increasing degree of complexity of the control programs and the milking robot constructions. The aim of this development is to obtain an as high as possible success rate in order to avoid the problems which may occur when the milking robot does not manage to apply the teatcups to the teats so that no milking takes place. This development means that the cost for the automatic milking machine will increase. However, there is also a tendency that this development towards a high success rate results in the disadvantage that more time has to be spent at each milking occasion, and thus the capacity of the milking machine is not utilized in an optimal manner. Furthermore, despite of this development there will always be situations in which the milking of an animal does not succeed, for example because the robot does not manage to apply one or more teatcups to the teats of one or more animals. It may for example happen that the robot does not find or recognize all the teats. Furthermore, the milking may not succeed because the milking machine does not manage to extract the desired amount of milk from the udder. This may have many grounds, the stimulation of the cow is insufficient, the animal is ill, etc.
EP-A-480 542 discloses a method of automatically milking an animal by means of a milking robot including a robot arm carrying one or more teatcups and coupling means for applying each teatcup to a relevant teat of the animal's udder. EP-A-480 542 is concerned with the problem of checking whether the teatcup is connected correctly to the teat and in particular this check is performed by a temperature measurement, since in the milk flow the temperature is higher than outside.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to overcome the disadvantages mentioned above and to provide a method and an apparatus, by which the overall efficiency of the milking procedure is improved. In particular the present invention aims to improve the utilization of the capacity of the milking apparatus and to reduce the cost of the milking apparatus.
This object is obtained by the initially mentioned method comprising the following steps: operating the milking apparatus in a normal mode during a first milking procedure for each animal, automatically determining when the milking of an animal during said first milking procedure does not succeed, and automatically operating the milking apparatus in a special mode during a following second milking procedure of the animal for which the milking did not succeed in the first milking procedure. By means of this method the majority of the animals may be milked according to the normal mode of operation. This normal mode makes use of a predetermined, limited time period for the milking of each animal. Thus the capacity of the milking apparatus may be well utilized, since the majority of the animals may be milked during this limited time period. These animals for which the milking did succeed then will be milked according to said first normal mode during a following second milking procedure. The relatively small number of animals for which this normal mode of operation is not sufficient for a successful milking may be determined and
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Lind Ole
Ornerfors Benny
Svennersten Kerstin
Alfa Laval Agri AB
Price Thomas
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