Apparatus for and a method of managing animals
AssigneeAlfa Laval Agri AB
InventorsKlaus Schulte, Jan Stein, Benny Ornerfors
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for managing animals, having a stall, such as a milking stall with an automatic milking machine. The stall comprises an entrance and an exit and is provided for housing one single animal. One or more enticing devices are provided to entice the animal to approach or to leave the stall.
Claims57
An apparatus for managing an animal, comprising:
- a stall having an entrance and an exit and provided for housing one single animal;
- an exit area accessible to the animal from the exit of the stall;
- enticing means provided to entice the animal to move from the stall into the exit area,
- wherein the enticing means is activatable from a rest state in which it does not entice the animal to an activated state in which it entices the animal, the enticing means including a plurality of enticing devices;
- and
- control means for activating the enticing means, wherein the control means is provided for selectively activating any one or a combination of the enticing devices.
A method of automatically managing an animal in a stall, comprising the following steps:
- electronically identifying the individual animal entering the stall;
- examining the condition of the identified animal;
- treating the identified animal in response to the result from the condition examination, and
- activating an entincing means for enticing the animal away from the stall.
An apparatus for enticing an animal towards a predetermined destination, comprising an animal enticing means, said animal enticing means including:
- a plurality of enticing units arranged at different locations and activatable independently of one another,
- a sensing means for sensing the presence of the animal comprising a plurality of sensing devices in an area where the animal resides, wherein at least one sensing device of said plurality of sensing devices upon sensing the presence of the animal activates at least one of said plurality of said enticing units for enticing the animal to move towards said one of said enticing units, thereby leading the animal along a route to said destination.
An apparatus for enticing an animal of a herd to move in a desired direction comprising a plurality of supply units for dispensing edible products to the animal, said supply units being arranged at different locations along said direction, each supply unit being provided with a sensing means for sensing the presence of said animal, and control means for controlling the supply units in response to said sensing means sensing the presence of the animal to dispense the edible products with varying dispensing intensity to the animal in various supply units, such that the animal is enticed to seek for edible products in said desired direction.
A method of enticing an animal to move in a desired direction, comprising the steps of:
- dispensing edible products, such as feed or water to the animal in supply units at different locations along said direction;
- sensing the presence of the animal at said supply units;
- and
- controlling said supply units in response to sensed presence of the animal, such that the edible products are dispensed with varying intensity to the animal in various ones of said supply units to entice the animal to seek for edible products in said desired direction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.