DeLaval Holding AB

Disclosed is a method for managing animals by surveying eating behavior of the animals in a livestock area, including monitoring the animals over a time period subsequent to distributing feed at a feed table in the livestock area, identifying animal behavior that fails to meet a criteria, and performing an such as regrouping the animals or conducting a health check on the animals.

The disclosure relates to an animal ear tag with a housing, a battery, and an electronic circuit powered by the battery. A coupling of the housing includes an opening configured to receive a head portion of a male tag portion. The housing may be formed in one piece and with a cavity in which the battery and the electronic circuit are arranged in a potting. The electronic circuit extends in a circuit plane and the housing portion extends on both sides of the circuit plane.

A method for controlling operation of a manure arrangement ( 10 ) that includes a manure storage structure ( 3 ), an agitator ( 11 ), and an agitator motor ( 8 ) arranged to actuate the agitator ( 11 ). The method including monitoring (S 1 ), while mixing manure in the manure storage structure ( 3 ) with the agitator ( 11 ), a load quantity indicative of a load on the agitator motor ( 8 ). The method further including controlling (S 2 ) operation of the manure arrangement ( 10 ) based on the monitored load quantity. A manure arrangement ( 10 ) arranged to perform the method is provided.

The disclosure relates to a sorting system for automatically selecting animals to be treated during a treatment period. A first aspect is a sorting system automatically selecting animals to be treated during a treatment period. The sorting system includes an automatic sort gate and a control arrangement receiving, via a user interface, user input indicative of sorting criteria applicable to animal properties and a maximum number of the animals allowed to be present simultaneously in the sorting area. The control arrangement is further configured to monitor a number of animals that enter and exit the sorting area. The control arrangement is finally configured to adjust one or more parameter values of the one or more sorting criteria, based on the monitored number of animals that enter and exit the sorting area. The disclosure also relates to a corresponding method and to a computer program for performing the method.

A safety arrangement for a milking parlour includes: a rotary platform with a plurality of milking stalls, a stationary bridge for allowing dairy animals to enter and exit the rotary platform, a safety switch device that includes a stepping surface configured to support the dairy animals when accidentally stepping outside the rotary platform, and a support structure that carries the stepping surface and is pivotally arranged about a pivot axis at a lower part of the support structure. The pivot axis allows a pivotal movement about a horizontal axis to allow the support structure with the stepping surface to pivot away from the rotary platform alongside the stationary bridge. The safety arrangement further includes a sensor arranged to activate an emergency stop of the rotary platform when a pivotal movement of the support structure about the pivot axis away from the rotary platform is detected by the sensor.

System for determining a respective walked distance of animals in a barn during a predetermined time period. The system includes a Real-Time Location System, a database storing historical trajectories of the animals and a processing controller. The processing controller is configured to determine the walked distance of the animal by establishing a walked trajectory based on obtained data entities, and store the trajectory in the database associated with the animal; or detecting a gap of missing or incomplete data entities among the obtained data entities; and establish the trajectory by inserting replacement distance data in the gap, based on historical trajectories extracted from the database and store the established trajectory in the database.

A milking system, including: a vacuum pump, a receiver, a milk line, and a plurality of milking units. Each milking unit is connected to the milk line via a respective milk conduit. Each milking unit is also associated with a respective valve arrangement, arranged in the milk conduit, wherein the valve arrangement includes an adjustable passage for adjustment of the fluid pressure. The system also includes a pressure sensor, arranged to measure fluid pressure in the milk conduit upstream the valve arrangement; and a controller. The controller is configured to obtain a pressure level measurement from the pressure sensor and generate and provide a control signal to the valve arrangement, to adjust the adjustable passage, based on the pressure level measurement.

A quality sensor that predicts a degree of inhomogeneities in milk extracted from an animal, by receiving a set of input variables reflecting at least one characteristic each of the animal, the extracted milk, and at least process during which milk was extracted from the animal, and by feeding the input variables into a trained artificial neural network in the quality sensor, which generates an estimate of a predicted degree of inhomogeneities in the milk of the animal.

An imaging system registers image data (D img ) in connection with an installation performing at least one action relating to an animal. A system for image data quality assurance contains a control unit and a digital storage unit. The control unit obtains image data (D img ) registered by the imaging system when the installation is in an idle mode. The control unit analyzes the obtained image data (D img ) to determine if a cleaning action to remove dirt (D) from a front window of the imaging system has been performed. If it is determined that such a cleaning action has been performed, control unit ( 120 ) causes a point in time for the cleaning action to be recorded in the digital storage unit ( 130 ) for use performance tracking of the installation in conjunction with the cleaning actions.

A milking system that includes milking cups, a milking robot with a robot arm configured to attach each of the milking cups to a respective teat, a sensor that detects two adjacent teats, and a control arrangement communicatively connected to the sensor and the robot arm, where the control arrangement is configured to determine a distance between the two adjacent teats, select one of the two adjacent teats to commence attachment of a first milking cup if the distance fulfils a distance criterion, and generate a command to the robot arm to commence the milking cup attachment to the selected teat.