Dairy farm with a single or multiple frontal elevated roads

Abstract

The present invention discloses, inter alia, a free dome range system (FDR) comprising at least one front elevated rail (FER); at least one rear elevated rail (RER); a plurality of mobile units, each of the plurality of mobile units movable along a member of a group consisting of: the at least one FER, the least one RER and any combination thereof. The invention also discloses a method of positioning at least one of a plurality of mobile units in an FDR comprising steps of providing a free dome range system (FDR) comprising at least one front elevated rail (FER); at least one rear elevated rail (RER); and the plurality of mobile units, each of the plurality of mobile units movable along a member of a group consisting of: the at least one FER, the least one RER and any combination thereof. The present invention further discloses a dairy farm characterized by (a) an array of n stalls side-by-side along an X axis on the dairy animal's level. Each of the stalls is configured by means of size and shape to accommodate a dairy animal, having a main axis Y that is substantially perpendicular to axis X, a front side and an opposite rear side; and (b) a common elevated road surface provided on a higher level, above the stalls. This upper road surface extends along the X axis and is constructed to allow free passage of mobile units, including mobile longitudinal milking units, in a direction along the X axis, along the Y axis, a rotation about the X axis, a rotation about the Y axis, a rotation about the Z axis, and any combination thereof. The present invention further discloses means and method that in a stall, a gate located between the animal and the feeding line is thereby configured to at least temporarily prevent or otherwise limit free access of said animal to its feed.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.