A REAL-TIME CONTROL-SYSTEM FOR INDIVIDUAL DAIRY-COW FOOD-INTAKE

A real-time control system for individual food intake of group-housed dairy cows was designed and implemented. The system consists of 40 fee ding stations, each position comprising an automatic opening and closi ng yoke-gate.The specially designed electro-pneumatic yoke-gate combin es off-the-shelf identification weighing and control systems in a uniq ue mechanical implementation. The yoke-system enables real-time contro l of food intake, which can be specified for each cow, and for each st ation through an interactive user interface. In addition, the system e nables measurement and utilization of on-line data related to individu al food intake and feeding behavior information such as food access fr equency, meal duration, intake rate and food quantity for each visit o f a cow kept in the group. The advantages of this design are: (i) the system is based on commercial components, (ii) simplicity and high rel iability resulting in low maintenance, and (iii) continuous measuremen t of all feeding parameters, including during the meal. Although the y oke-system was built for a research institute, it is a step towards a commercial system. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.