Patent ID: 8567343

Claim:
A method for determining milk yield for a group of dairy animals, the method comprising the steps of: providing a milking parlor with a group of milking stalls for milking a group of animals; providing a plurality of measuring devices in a subgroup of said group of milking stalls, the number of milking stalls in the subgroup being less than the number of milking stalls in the group, such that some of the group of milking stalls have measuring devices and some of the group of milking stalls do not have measuring devices; milking the dairy animals in the group of milking stalls, wherein the dairy animals being milked within the subgroup of milking stalls define a subgroup of animals; identifying dairy animals being milked in the subgroup of milking stalls; obtaining a milk yield for the diary animals in the subgroup of animals from the measuring devices; storing the milk yield for the subgroup of animals in a control device; and operating the control device to calculate a milk yield for the group of dairy animals using the subgroup milk yield as a factor.