Patent ID: 7073459

Claim:
Method for controlling breeding of animals of a herd comprising for each animal the repeated series of steps of monitoring characteristics of each individual animal by regular, automatic detection of said characteristics by a detection means controlled by means of a control unit to which the detection means communicates an output signal being significant for the detected characteristics, the detection being accompanied by an automatic identification of the individual animal by an identification means controlled by means of the control unit to which an output significant of the identity of the animal is communicated from the identification means, said characteristics comprising at least the weight of the animal, adding said output from the detection means into a record pertaining to the individual animal and storing said record in a data storage means by means of the control unit, dispersing feed to the identified animal by a feed dispersing means of an automatic feeding unit controlled by means of the control unit, adding data concerning the feeding of the identified animal to a record pertaining to said animal and storing said record on data storage means associated with the control unit, automatically identifying of an individual animal approaching a drinking water bowl by the identification means of the drinking bowl controlled by means of the control unit to which an output significant of the identity of the animal is communicated from the identification means, monitoring the amount of water consumed by said animal from the drinking water bowl by the detection means and communicating an output accordingly to the control unit, and adding said data to the record pertaining to said animal, the animals of the herd being supplied with drinking water from one or more drinking water bowls controlled in the above way so that all consumption of drinking water of each of the animals is monitored and data concerning said consumption are added to the record of each animal.