An assembly for feeding and milking animals, and a method of feeding and milking animals

A method of feeding and milking animals in a feeding area provided with a number of juxtaposed feeding stations for the animals, the method comprising:

• retaining a first animal in a first feeding station during feeding of the first animal;
• retaining a second animal present in at least one adjacent feeding station that is adjacent to the first feeding station moving a mobile milking robot to the first animal;
• and
• milking the first animal.

An assembly for performing an animal related treatment on an animal, the assembly comprising:

• an area where the animal is allowed to move freely;
• a mobile device for performing the animal related treatment, the mobile device having a main direction;
• a first orientation device for determining the orientation of the main direction of the animal to be treated;
• and
• a second orientation device for determining the orientation of the main direction of the mobile device, the mobile device being positioned relative to the animal with the aid of data from the first and the second orientation device.

An assembly of a device for feeding animals and a device for performing an animal related treatment on animals, the assembly comprising:

• an area where the animals are allowed to move freely;
• a number of juxtaposed feeding stations for the animals:
• retaining devices fixedly disposed at the feeding stations, which retaining devices can be activated for retaining an animal at a feeding station and can be deactivated for releasing an animal;
• a self-propelled mobile device for automatically performing an animal related treatment;
• and
• a computer system for controlling the operation and movement of the mobile device.

A method of feeding and milking animals that are allowed to move freely in an area intended therefor, the method comprising:

• supplying feed in a feeding station with a number of feeding positions that are freely accessible to the animals;
• selecting at least one animal to be milked from the set of animals present in the feeding station;
• retaining temporarily a subset of the animals present in the feeding station with the aid of retaining devices that can be activated and deactivated and that are permanently provided at each feeding position, which subset comprises at least said one selected animal,
• moving a mobile milking robot to the at least one animal that has been retained and selected, and positioning the mobile milking robot relative to the at least one animal that has been retained and selected, and
• milking said animal that has been retained and selected by means of the mobile milking robot.