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+--- Thread: Speaking of cows... (/showthread.php?tid=167208)
Speaking of cows... - pdq - 05-14-2014
(well, there was a topic below about "jazz for cows"...)
I recently got back from a very nice tour of the Netherlands, and saw many things (including scantily clad ladies behind glass doors in Amsterdam), but the most mind-blowing thing to me was a visit to a dairy farm where the cows milk themselves.
Yes this _is_ safe for work...and apologies if this is old news to some, but here's a few descriptive tidbits from a Bloomberg report:
Bloomberg wrote:
Once a cow is in the box, a carbon-fiber and stainless-steel robotic arm moves under the cow, scans it with lasers to find the t eats, and attaches four teatcups in a matter of seconds. A video camera mounted above the cow measures the animal’s position in three dimensions....The machine also automatically brushes the t eats twice: first to stimulate milk flow and then, after milking, to clean them off.
You read right - frikkin _laser beams_! And when the milking is done, the teatcups pop off and the cow goes on it's merry way.
Yeah, but you have to manually get the cow into and out of "the box", right? Actually, no. The cow gets "cookies" (the nice farmer lady told us) from the machine while it's being milked, and that's enough of a draw for each cow to come into the box on it's own! On the other hand, if one comes back for cookies too soon (the machine knows each cow by tracking its collar) then, well - no cookie for you, moo! Get outta here!
So this guy has a hundred cows, and they lie around and eat (and fart) all day, until they're feeling udderly full and then they walk over and into the box for milking and their cookies. The farmer says 95% of the cows learned the drill in _a week_. I think he plays video games all day now.
(BTW, the cows also have an automatic rotary back-scratcher they can use- I am not making this up! -but that's another story...)
Re: Speaking of cows... - Robert M - 05-14-2014
pdq,
Maybe they're extraterrestrial cows? I didn't see anything about cows like that in Cows of our Planet.
Robert
P.S. Sound like it was an amazing tour!
Re: Speaking of cows... - Paul F. - 05-14-2014
Milk cows know when it's time to be milked...
At the diary I lived next to for 20+ years, they'd gather around the gate where they knew they'd be let out of that pasture... then the dairyman would open the gate, and just lead 'em toward the milking barn. There might be 1-2 that stayed behind to munch grass, but the rest would just line up at the milking barn...
So I can see the fully automated system working pretty good!
Re: Speaking of cows... - OWC Jamie - 05-14-2014
this is a titillating tale
Re: Speaking of cows... - eustacetilley - 05-14-2014
Eustace
Re: Speaking of cows... - ztirffritz - 05-14-2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUtSazFb5qM
Re: Speaking of cows... - Grateful11 - 05-15-2014
This is probably one of the best videos on Lely's Robotic Milking System. My wife actually thought about
pursuing a milking system like this one for a short period. They cost about $210K/robot.
An Irish Grazing Dairy Farm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jazPK3qvH4Y
What an American old-time farmer says about robotic milkers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLwpfJsS0VQ
Re: Speaking of cows... - GuyGene - 05-15-2014
...which no one was doing,
Why are they always staring and chewing?
Staring at people, chewing at clover,
Doing the same things over and over.
Cows mustn't care for new ways of doing,
That's what they stare for,
That's why they're chewing."
Re: Speaking of cows... - deckeda - 05-16-2014
pdq wrote:
...The machine also automatically brushes the t eats twice: first to stimulate milk flow and then, after milking, to clean them off.
Hey is there a 1-900 number where I can reference that? Thanks.