METHOD FOR MANAGING A HERD, AND MILKING DEVICE FOR PERFORMING THE METHOD

Abstract

A method for milking and managing a herd of dairy animals by at least attributing an insemination suitability status, the method includes, for each dairy animal, milking the dairy animal by means of a milking device, with a controller. By means of the controller, using a measuring device, determining at least one parameter value PV.sub.i related to the milking. By means of the controller, calculating an index value V of the dairy animal with respect to the herd of dairy animals on the basis of PV.sub.i and an average parameter value PV.sub.hi for the herd of dairy animals, which index value V indicates a value ranking order in the herd, and if the index value of the dairy animal fulfils a predefined criterion, automatically by means of the controller attributing to the dairy animal the insemination suitability status “inseminate no longer”.

Claims

1. A method for milking and managing a herd of dairy animals by at least attributing an insemination suitability status which indicates a suitability for insemination of a dairy animal, the method comprising, for each dairy animal: milking the dairy animal by means of a milking device, with a controller, by means of the controller, using a measuring device, determining at least one parameter value PV.sub.i related to the milking, by means of the controller, calculating an index value V of the dairy animal with respect to the herd of dairy animals on the basis of PV.sub.i and an average parameter value PV.sub.hi for the herd of dairy animals, which index value Vindicates a value ranking order in the herd, and if the index value of the dairy animal fulfils a predefined criterion, automatically by means of the controller attributing to the dairy animal the insemination suitability status “inseminate no longer”, wherein the controller calculates the index value V based on PV.sub.i and PV.sub.ha, and wherein the criterion comprises either that said dairy animal belongs to a predefined part of the herd with a lowest index value, or that said index value of the dairy animal deviates from the herd average index value V.sub.h in an unfavorable sense by a predefined measure.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising, if the index value of the dairy animal fulfils said predefined criterion, attributing to the dairy animal a supplementary status “after completion of the momentary lactation, remove from the herd”, and removing from the herd after the end of lactation.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising monitoring the dairy animal in order to detect heat, and if it is detected that the dairy animal displays heat, making the insemination suitability status of the dairy animal knowable in an attention list or to a manager.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein if the at least one parameter value comprises a first parameter value PV.sub.1 up to and including an a parameter value PV.sub.n, the index value for the dairy animal is determined by determining for a parameter value j a sub-index value V.sub.i-sub,j, and determining an index value V.sub.i for the dairy animal on a basis of all sub-index values as a weighted mean index value according to V=(Σa.sub.jV.sub.i-sub,j)/Σa.sub.j for all parameters j, wherein a.sub.j are predefined constants.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one parameter value comprises an expected total production TMP of at least one constituent of a milk of the dairy animal in a lactation following said insemination.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said expected total production is equated to a total production during a most recent complete lactation.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein said expected total production is calculated on a basis of historic production data of the dairy animal and/or historic production data of the herd of dairy animals and/or a model.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein said at least one constituent of the milk comprises milk fat or milk protein of the milk, or the whole milk.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein said part of the herd of dairy animals is a part with a same parity class as said dairy animal.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one parameter value comprises a total time TT during a most recent lactation that the dairy animal spent in the milking device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one parameter value comprises a reproduction result RR of said dairy animal, wherein RR is calculated on a basis of a number of inseminations #I required for one or more previous conceptions, and/or a length of a waiting period DWP.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one parameter value comprises a health number which is determined on a basis of a number and/or costs of health treatments registered for said dairy animal, and/or on a basis of a number of health attentions.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one parameter value comprises a profit number which is calculated on a basis of at least a milk yield of said dairy animal less a cost of feed and/or health treatments and/or inseminations concerning said dairy animal.

14. A milking device, for milking and managing a herd of dairy animals, configured for performing the method of claim 1, wherein the milking device comprises: a milking means with milking cups; at least one measuring device for determining at least one parameter value PV.sub.i related to the milking; and a controller operably connected to the milking means and the measuring device, wherein the controller is configured, for each dairy animal, to store the at least one parameter values PV.sub.i, and to attribute and output, by means of an output device, the insemination suitability status.

15. The milking device of claim 14, wherein the at least one measuring device is selected from the group consisting of a milk quantity meter for measuring a quantity of extracted milk, a milk fat content meter for measuring a milk fat content of the extracted milk, a milk protein content meter for measuring a milk protein content of the extracted milk, a clock for determining a time during which a dairy animal occupied the milking device, a feed meter for determining a quantity of feed consumed by the dairy animal, and a memory for input by a manager of data concerning a health treatment, insemination and/or conception of the dairy animal.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the milking device is a robot milking device.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the controller calculates the index value V based on a ratio of PV.sub.i and PV.sub.ha.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein said index value of the dairy animal deviates from the herd average index value V.sub.h in the unfavorable sense by a number of standard deviations of a distribution of index values of the herd.

19. The method of claim 9, wherein a first parity class contains dairy animals with one complete lactation, and a second parity class contains dairy animals with two or more complete lactations.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein said at least one parameter value comprises a profit number which is calculated on the basis of at least the milk yield of said dairy animal less the cost of feed and/or health treatments and/or inseminations concerning said dairy animal divided by an occupation time TT of the milking device.

Description

[0034] The invention will now be explained in more detail with reference to a non-limitative example, and it shows in:

[0035] FIG. 1 a schematic flow diagram of a method according to the invention,

[0036] FIG. 2 an example of a list of index values, and

[0037] FIG. 3 a milking device according to the invention.

[0038] FIG. 1 shows a schematic flow diagram of a method according to the invention. The method begins with steps 100, 110 and 120 for collecting the necessary measuring data for each animal, such as production quantities, occupation times TT of the milking device, and/or health costs. The choice of measurement data depends on the herd manager and the availability of this data.

[0039] Then for all dairy animals, the index value V.sub.i is calculated in step 130. As an example, first a herd average value for the respective measurement data is calculated, such as the total milk production TMP per dairy animal, which is a measure of the expected milk production in the lactation which will follow a successful subsequent insemination. By then dividing the individually expected total milk production value TMP.sub.i by the herd average TMP.sub.ha, an index value V.sub.i is obtained for each dairy animal.

[0040] If required, in the optional step 131, an index list may be determined in which all individual index values V.sub.i are given in sequence from favorable to unfavorable (or vice versa, naturally).

[0041] Step 135 indicates the input of a criterion which is applied to the index value to decide whether a dairy animal should have the insemination suitability status “inseminate no longer” or “inseminate”. This criterion concerns an input by the manager or factory or similar. For example, the criterion is “attribute the status ‘inseminate no longer’ to all animals in the least favorable 25% of index values”.

[0042] In step 140, the criterion is applied to a dairy animal, and if in step 150 the dairy animal fulfils the criterion, then in step 170 the insemination suitability status “inseminate no longer” is attributed by the controller, otherwise in step 160 the status “inseminate”.

[0043] If, in step 180, heat is detected in the dairy animal, then in step 190 the status is displayed to the manager, such as in a message on the screen of his computer, with a visible signal or similar.

[0044] FIG. 2 shows an example of a list of index values. The list is standardized to an average of 100 and the herd size is 60 animals. As a criterion, it is determined that each year 25% of the animals should be removed from the herd, i.e. 15 animals. In this example, the assumption is 0% removal for sickness or other reasons. Of course, such animals should be deducted from the 25% unless there are special reasons for yet removing an animal.

[0045] The list is ordered by falling index value V. Here, V is for example a production of milk, milk fat or milk protein. In the case for example that the costs for feed and/or health treatments and/or insemination values are used as a parameter value for calculating V, a list with an incremental order would be headed by the most economically favorable animal.

[0046] A division has been made at the line. Animals with an index value in the top 75% are inseminated, or in any case awarded a corresponding status, while the bottom 25% (15 animals) are awarded the status “inseminate no longer”.

[0047] An addition or exception to this may be caused by a greatly deviating index value. If for example 16 or more animals have an index value which deviates from the mean by more than for example 1.5 standard deviations, then all these animals would get the status “inseminate no longer”. The criterion is here replaced by “does the index value deviate from the mean in the negative sense by more than 1.5 standard deviations?”. This number may, in the case of a sharp division, be greater than the basic setting “the poorest 25%”. Other numbers are of course possible.

[0048] FIG. 3 shows a milking device 1 according to the invention. The milking device 1 is a robot milking device with a robot part 2 with a robot arm 3, a milking cup 4, a milk meter 5, a milk composition meter 6, and a controller 7 with a memory 8 and an antenna 9. Reference numeral 10 indicates a mobile telephone with a screen 11. Also, a feed trough 12 is provided, in which a feed provider 13 can provide feed. Reference numeral 14 indicates an animal identification device, wherein 15 indicates an animal ID tag and 16 a step counter. Finally, 30 indicates a dairy animal with teats 31.

[0049] The milking device 1 is here a milking robot known in itself, with a robot body 4 with for example a milk collection tank, a vacuum pump and similar, and with a robot arm 3 for attaching the milking cup(s) 4 to the teats 31 of the dairy animal 30 by means of a teat position determination device (not shown here). The milking device may also equally well comprise a conventional milking device, wherein a person attaches the milking cups to the teats.

[0050] The milking cup 4 extracts milk from the teat 31. The milk meter 5 measures the quantity of extracted milk, and the milk composition meter 6 measures the milk composition, in particular a fat and/or protein content of the milk. Incidentally, it is alternatively possible to determine the fat and/or protein content from laboratory data concerning individual milk samples. Also, a clock (not shown) built into the controller indicates the total time TT during which a dairy animal 30 has occupied the milking robot 1 during the processing. In addition, a feed trough 12 in the milking robot 1 provides concentrate to the dairy animal 30 by means of a feed provider 13. This provides feed on the basis of a feed allowance assigned to the dairy animal 30, which is determined by the controller after identification of the dairy animal by means of the animal ID tag 15, attached for example to a neck band around the neck of the dairy animal, and the animal identification device 14 such as a tag reader. The provided quantity of feed, or more precisely the consumed quantity of feed, is reported to the controller 7. If the feed provider can provide different types of feed, a quantity may be determined for each feed type. On the basis of the type and quantity, for example the associated costs can be determined by the controller.

[0051] The data received by the controller 7 is stored in a memory 8 and processed into an index value V for the dairy animal, partly on the basis of corresponding data for the other animals. This is explained for example with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. The controller 7 thus contains a list of index values V. On the basis of a criterion stored in the controller, the controller may then determine whether a dairy animal should be awarded the insemination suitability status “inseminate no longer” or “inseminate”.

[0052] This status may be displayed on request. But also, and above all if heat is detected for an animal, displaying this is important. For example, if on the basis of measurement data from the step counter 16 and in a known fashion, heat of a dairy animal 30 is detected, the status is displayed to the manager. For this, the controller 7 for example sends the status via a transmission antenna 9 to the user's mobile phone 10, where the status appears on the screen 11. The user/manager may take the status as a decision and not inseminate the dairy animal 30, or still inseminate it for special reasons.