Automated dairy barn milk stall

Abstract

Abstract A dairy barn for automatically processing cows for milking. Individual cows are moved from a herd in a holding area serially into a wash stall, a prep stall, a runway, one of a plurality of milk stalls, and an exit passageway. The cows are moved from station-to-station automatically responsive to pre-set control functions and cow movement. Memory controls are provided to insure that every cow directed to a milk stall has gone through a complete wash and prep cycle. The memory controls are also designed to keep the milk stalls loaded with ''''unmilked'''' cows. For example, where cows are let out of two milk stalls in the same milking line, the wash and prep stalls will automatically process two additional cows which are in turn released to these milk stalls. The operation is automatic in that the only action required by the operator is in releasing the milked cows from the milk stalls. When each cow is milked and leaves its milk stall, the control system automatically advances a washed and preped cow into this stall, advances a washed cow into the prep stall, and advances a cow from the holding area into the wash stall. Each milk stall is adapted to position the cow in an optimum relationship for milking with respect to an operator''s walkway, and pusher gates are provided to operate when the milk stall is opened for urging the cow to leave the milk stall by itself.

Inventors

• 👤 Richard E Maddalena
• 👤 Edward J Maddalena

Bibliographic Details