Patent ID: 6830008
Filing Date: 2004-12-14
Classification: A01J

Abstract:
A method of automatically milking animals in an automatic milking facility provided with a milk flow measuring device capable of, during milking, in-situ measuring the milk flow from each udder quarter individually of a plurality of udder quarters of the animal being milked, comprising the steps of:assigning a respective threshold value to each udder quarter of the plurality of udder quarters of the animal to be milked, each of the respective threshold values indicating a threshold value related to the milk flow from the udder quarter to which the threshold value is assigned, at which the milking of that udder quarter is to be ended; beginning the milking of each of the udder quarters of said animal; in-situ measuring the individual milk flow from each udder quarter of said animal during milking; and ending the milking of the respective udder quarter of said animal depending on the measured milk flow from the respective udder quarter reaching the threshold value assigned to that udder quarter; wherein, at least the threshold value for a last milking udder quarter of the plurality of udder quarters of said animal, is raised subsequently to the ending of milking of a first milking udder quarter of said animal, the last milking udder quarter being the udder quarter of the plurality of udder quarters to which milking ends last, the first milking udder quarter being the udder quarter of the plurality of udder uuarters to which milking ends first, to thereby shorten a total milking time of the animal, and thus more rapidly freeing milking capacity of the milking facility to be used for the milking of a further animal.