Subject:
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Re: TR: North America's First/Only DeLaval VMS
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto
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Date:
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Thu, 9 Dec 2004 19:12:36 GMT
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Viewed:
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1021 times
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In lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto, Iain Hendry wrote:
Hi Iain, snipped intro.
> At lunch, I checked it out, and to my surprise DeLaval was indeed offering a
> robotic milking system, but dramatically different to LELY's technique. I
> was instantly intrigued and practically begged him to show it to me some
> day. I talked it over wiht my dad a bit, and he remembered the farm from his
> days working for OMAF, and we talked a little bit more about the system. He
> also mentioned that it was not only the first, but only DeLaval VMS in North
> America.
>
> Nathan wasn't aware that his robot was so unique, but was nevertheless very
> eager to show it off. It was a total flashback to when I went to see the
> LELY machine so many years ago, and I was even more excited this time around
> than I was then.
> The barn is set up in two halves of about 60 cows each. Each side has a
> dedicated robot. The layout of the barn is such that the control room is
> situated directly in the centre of the two robots, so from here all can be
> seen.
After reading this, and being fairly familiar with the automated milking
process, a few questions of this robotic process popped into my head..... and I
was wondering if you maybe knew some of the answers. For the automated process,
milking is limited mainly by the dairy farmers ability to manage overhead costs
of equipment (eg, holding pens, refrigerated tanks, auxiliary generators for
poweroutages, etc) so with cost set aside (and I am sure a system like this is
not cheap) I'm wondering, can the robotic system keep up on the production for a
large number of head? What is the output limitations? Is 60 head the max?
> I was surprised when Nathan said we could go inside the "room" that
> the robot was in - in our industry at Ventax, this would all be interlocked
> and would instantly shut down the system if I'd opened the door. I then
> remembered that the entire robot is servopneumatic and is thus "springy", so
> it's not really a safety hazard at all to be inside the room with the robot.
> On several ocassions I kept forgetting it was moving about, and it konked me
> in the head.
>
> The first step is to identify the cow which has entered the pen (on her own
> free will) via a readable tag. Once the computer has identified her, the
> physical dimensions of the pen automatically adjust to best accomidate her
> and ensure she won't move around too much. Appropriate feed types and
> amounts are dispenced, so she can eat a bit while the robot goes to work.
Secondly, since this set up must be so much more costly, and aside from being
interesting and really cool, I am wondering what the real advantages are from a
system being totally robotic compared to just being automatic? Is there is real
benefit to the beast, or is the saving of labour costs that great? I know many
dairy farms with large number of head, that still operate as a family business,
so I'm guessing it just can't be the labour costs, I must be missing something.
> The next step is to clean the teats, which is done via a special head. The
> robot carefully (and very quickly) removes it from a nest, and locates each
> teat cup via a laser guidance system. Once the teat is identified and
> located, it briskly attaches the cleaning head to each teat, and washes and
> dries it. Then, the robot puts the cleaning head away and moves on to attach
> each of the four individual teat cups.
>
> Once each of the 4 teat cups are attached, the robot twists over and gently
> moves in to stabalize the hoses, just like a human would support them to
> keep them from touching the floor. The way the robot moves and acts is so
> human like. It's so different from what we do at work.
>
> When each quarter's flow drops below a threshold, the cups are automatically
> retracted into the cleaning nests, and once all 4 have come off the robot
> sprays the underside of the cow with a cleaning solution. The front door
> opens and the cow is encouraged to leave, so the next one cam come in.
Thirdly, I also assume (even though the cows are under their own "freewill") since there is a monitor system in place identifying each beast, there also must be a warning system in place for cows that haven't wandered in of their own free will. How long are they left to their own demise? Knowing fully that serious complications can take place if they are not milked regularly, I have to assume they are not let that long. I have to wonder how much human intervention is needed to prompt those that do not show up for release. Or is the process so truly Pavlovian that there is little need for human prodding (pun intended)?
> I think we stood watching it for over 2 hours. Huge thanks to Nathan and his
> dad for taking time out of their busy schedules to show me this incredible
> machine!
>
> Photos at: http://img74.photobucket.com/albums/v224/duckjock/DeLaval-VMS/
>
> Iain
Thanks,
Janey "Closing the barn door after the beast is out, Red Brick"
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | TR: North America's First/Only DeLaval VMS
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| My father worked for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, and with that I was introduced to virtually every aspect of farming as a child growing up. My dad would often take me to farms, and early on I became fascinated with the technology in use at (...) (20 years ago, 9-Dec-04, to lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto)
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