Tag Archives: milk cows

241-247 A. Laurs and J. Priekulis
Robotic milking of dairy cows
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Robotic milking of dairy cows

A. Laurs and J. Priekulis

Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Latvia University of Agriculture,J. Čakstes bulv.5, LV3001, Jelgava, Latvia; e-mail: armins.laurs@promedia.lv

Abstract:

In countries with developed dairy farming milking robots are gaining wide popularity. The first milking equipment of this kind was installed in Latvia in 2007 and found interest among partitioning animal breeders and among scientists. The main feature of the milking robots is that cows can be milked independently, without human assistance and “on demand”. The aim of our research was to state how often the cows visited the robots, and to compare the load (capacity) and quality of the obtained milk to traditional milking equipment. In our experiments, the cows visited the robots 2.9 times a day, on average. Two robots that served a group of 73 cows were loaded to 65%. Therefore, the capacity can be enlarged to 110 cows. With the use of robots, milk quality indices were higher than milking with stall-type equipment with parallel location of animals.

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299-306 J. Priekulis and V. Murikov
Research in liquid manure removal and storage technological versions on milk farms
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Research in liquid manure removal and storage technological versions on milk farms

J. Priekulis and V. Murikov

Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Latvia University of Agriculture,J.Čakstes bulv. 5, LV3001, Jelgava, Latvia; e-mail: Juris.Priekulis@llu.lv

Abstract:

Today loose housing of cows using boxes and a minimal amount of litter, resulting in liquid rather than litter manure is very common. However, there has not been much experience in manure utilization in Latvia.In our research we have discussed the possible outcome of liquid manure considering theamount of sewage water in liquid manure, the most economically effective technological versions of liquid manure removal from cow barns and transportation to storage reservoirs as well as different storage reservoir building costs, depending on their capacity and building type.It has been stated that the sewage water in the reservoir comprises 17% of the totalamount of liquid manure. Practically speaking, the operational costs of liquid manure removal systems do not depend on the kind of boxes for cow recreation, but rather on the technological equipment costs. In addition, the lagoon-type liquid manure reservoirs are cheaper. Installing cylindrical reservoirs with reinforced concrete panel walls increases the specific building costs 1.8 times, and with metal plate walls – 2.0-2.5 times.

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