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A Research On Dairy Barn

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Imagine your modern-day dairy barn, with your usual milk cows: manure scrapers clean the floors constantly, feed-pushers keep the feed fence ready, and tagged collars give unique insights about each cow. But beyond all of the conventional gadgetry this barn has something else: no people. This dairy barn features the Lely Astronaut, a new, reliable employee that uses the cow’s behavior to cause them to enter the stall and increase their milk production, and requires almost no human help. Lely is a Dutch company founded in 1948, and since then has been one of several industry leaders committed to building revolutionary products that use simple behaviors as an advantage to both the dairy business and the cattle involved. Lely has come the …show more content…

Another benefit is that to a consumer on the outside looking in, the system is well rounded, and it’s easy to see the cows are happy and healthy. But what motivates the cattle to enter the Astronaut? Cows begin learning to enter stalls like this early in their life- and it all revolves around one thing. Food! At six days old the calves enter a small stall to get their milk. This then turns into bigger stalls, where full grown cows eat their daily feed. When it’s time to learn how to enter the Astronaut, where nutrient-rich concentrates and relief from a full udder awaits, it’s usually no problem getting the cows inside. The secret here is association, a fairly simple idea that goes all the way back to the 1890’s with Pavlov and his dogs. Once the cattle learn to associate the milking stall with only good things, they’re willing to enter by themselves, without the usual poking and prodding of a directed cow system, making things much easier for both the people and the cattle involved. Getting inside the Astronaut is not a problem either. Cows prefer a straight, uncomplicated route, and Lely has designed the I-flow just for that purpose. Although it sounds like an app for your iPhone, the I-flow has reduced milking time by 4% and has increased the average milk per cow

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