Abstract: The invention relates to a method of determining the extent to which a milk line system is rinsed with a cleaning fluid, whereby in one or more places in the milk line system the electric conductivity of the cleaning fluid is determined. More in particular, according to the invention, the electric conductivity is measured in places which are difficult to reach for the cleaning fluid and/or in places in the milk line system which are more susceptible to contamination.

Abstract: An emergency indoor television antenna is inserted between a cable television wall outlet and a television set that includes a coaxial cable connector. The antenna comprises a spacer containing an electrical conductor that connects to the central conductor of the coaxial cable connector of the television set on one end and to the shielding of the coaxial cable connected to the wall outlet for the television set on the other end. Optionally a switch may be included selectively to connect the electrical conductor to the shielding or to the central conductor of the coaxial cable.

Abstract: An apparatus for automatically milking animals, such as cows, which comprises teat cups for connection to the teats of the animal to be milked and separate cups for connection to the teats of the animal for the purpose of cleansing, disinfecting or foremilking the animal. The apparatus is further provided with a switching device for alternately connecting the teat cups and the separate cups to the animal's teats. Each set of cups has its own compartment for being cleaned by a fluid spray. The process is controlled and recorded for each animal or groups of animals in a computer in association with an animal identification system. Robot arms separately move each set of cups to and from the animal's teats and to and from their respective cleaning compartments, and a further robot arm has a detector such as a laser, ultrasonic sensor or camera mounted thereon for locating the animal's teats so that the two sets of cups can be connected and disconnected therefrom.

Abstract: In a fully automated milking system, a disinfecting device that disinfects those parts of the milking equipment and of a cleaning device which contact the teats and also usually the udder of an animal to be milked. The disinfecting device comprises an ultraviolet light source wherein the wavelength of the ultraviolet rays are between 100 and 280 nanometers. The light source may be movable within a teat cup or directly connected to the teat cup so that the radiation penetrated the teat cup's liner which is translucent and destroys harmful bacteria on the teat cup parts that contact the teat of an animal being milked as well as contacting portions of the animal's udder.

Abstract: A cleaning apparatus and method for cleaning components of automated milking apparatus which includes milking machines which are automatically connected and disconnected to the animals being milked. A rinsing liquid supply line supplies water through a protecting device and a heat exchanger to a junction which has a line leading to a rinsing liquid reservoir which includes a heating element to provide heat cleaning if desired, a line connected to a metering device to introduce an additive such as an alkali or acid, a branch line for rinsing components of the automatic milking machine such as teat cups and a branch line leading through non-return devices to a rinsing liquid buffer reservoir which can be pressurized by air pressure and used for cleansing components such as the teat cups and sensor on a robot arm and the device for cleaning the udders and teats of the animals being milked.

Abstract: In a method of automatically feeding and milking animals which are allowed to visit individually a milking parlor provided with a milking robot and a feeding station as well as a separate feeding stall provided with a further feeding station, an animal visiting the milking parlor is identified and the current value of an individual milking parameter for the animal is determined, on the basis of which current value there is decided whether or not the animal will be milked and fed during milking. When visiting the separate feeding stall, an animal is identified and the current value of the individual milking parameter for the animal is determined as well, while, on the basis of said current value there is decided whether or not the animal will be fed. In this manner it is achieved that the animals, while visiting the milking robot sufficiently often, are also enabled to eat enough feed/concentrate.

Abstract: An implement for displacing crop lying on the ground comprising at least one rake member which is driven so as to be rotatable about an upwardly orientated axis and which is provided with a plurality of outwardly extending arms, each of which pivots in upward direction about a pivot axis. Each arm has a pair of outwardly extending tines connected pivotably thereto. The pivotal connections of the arms to the rake wheels and the tines to the arms of each assemble of arms and tines is such that the center of gravity, when the implement is operating, is so disposed that the resultant of the gravitational and centrifugal forces urge the arms and the tines towards the underlying ground. The rake wheels can be folded upwardly about their pivot axes into a transport position wherein the arms are received in a locking device which comprises a resilient member having a recess for receiving each arm. The resilient member may comprise a spring or be composed of an elastic material such as plastic or rubber.

Abstract: An amorphous potassium aluminosilicate filtration media which may be mixed with activated carbon filters water to remove oxygen, chlorines, hardness, alkalinity, ammonia, hydrogen, hydrogen sulfide, sodium sulfite and other contaminants. The particular sodium aluminosilicate is a porous amorphous material formed under ultraviolet light or sunlight to produce pore sizes of 60 Å to 250 Å at ambient temperatures (20° C.-35° C.) and low relative humidity (5%-20%). The media is initially formed as a microporous primarily amorphous gel containing Na2O, Al2O3, SiO2 and H2O. The sodium therein is displaced by potassium, whereby the filter removes impurities from water without introducing sodium. The potassium aluminosilicate may be a second stage filter to a first stage filter composed of a strong base anion media charged with potassium carbonate and/or bicarbonate.

Abstract: An apparatus for automatically milking animals, such as cows, comprising automatic milking machine and a milking robot for automatically connecting teat cups to the teats of an animal to be milked. The apparatus is further provided an enclosure having a control room which is accessible to and contains at least part of the milking machine and milking robot. The apparatus further comprises a device for cleaning or disinfecting, or both, an operator who enters the control room. This is accomplished automatically by providing adjacent to, or as part of, the door that enters the control room, a cleaning and disinfecting device which at least contacts the footwear of an operator entering the control room. The door may be turnable about a centrally disposed vertical axis which rotates to provide an entrance and exit from the control room, the bottom of the rotatable door comprising a basin which contains cleaning or disinfectant fluid or both.

Abstract: The invention relates to a device for cleaning and/or disinfecting a teat of an animal immediately prior to or subsequent to the milking operation. The device comprises a teat receiving cup having a plurality of spray nozzles disposed on its upper side which are connected to receive cleansing fluid or disinfectant or both under pressure and capacity control to spray the animal's teats. The spray nozzles and supply lines thereto are affixed to the teat receiving cup so that the nozzles are pointed obliquely upwardly towards the center line of the teat receiving cup. The supply lines, including a distribution member for dividing fluid being conducted to the spray nozzles, is connected to the teat receiving cup by means of an elastic stocking or a shrink stocking.

Abstract: Disclosed is a cultivator mounted to roll about a horizontal axis transverse to the direction of travel of the machine in combination with a hopper. The cultivator and hopper are mounted on a frame which is adapted to be connected to a three-point hitch of a tractor. The cultivator is connected to the frame under and behind the hopper and by a pivotal shaft which interconnects bearings confined fore and aft by U-profiles. The cutivator is thus tiltable within limits relative to the frame and hopper and is also turnable within limits so that the cultivator turns with the tractor. It also provides support for the hopper. A centrifugal air pump is mounted on the hopper which, via a pair of venturi-type devices, draw in granular material, such as seed, from the hopper for distributing same on the soil, the hopper having a pair of metering devices which meter granular material received by the venturi-devices.

Abstract: An apparatus for automatically milking animals, is provided with a milking robot which includes a robot arm that carries teat cups, each teat cup being carried in its own housing in a supporting element in the robot arm. When the teat cups are in an inoperative position, the openings on their upper sides are shielded by the supporting element. Each robot arm portion comprises a plurality of housings, one for each teat cup. Piston and cylinder members are disposed in each housing to move the teat cups from their shielded inoperative position to an open operative position under the teats of the animal to be milked and then upwardly to connect the teat cups to the teats of the animal to be milked. Thereafter the supporting element is lowered and the teat cups which remain on the teats are connected thereto only by flexible members.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for automatically milking animals which are allowed individually to visit a milking compartment associated with a milking robot for automatically milking animals therein. An animal visiting the milking compartment is milked by the milking robot only when, since it last visited the milking compartment, Q milkings of other animals in the milking compartment have occurred. Based on physiological characteristics, each animal is assigned a number x which indicates how often it should be milked per unit of time such as a day. Intervening milkings Q which must take place before the animal can be milked again is calculated as a function of the animal's corresponding number x. Physiological characteristics which determine x for each animal include its milk yield, its lactation period stage, its age, its movement activity, its feed consumption and its udder's health.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for milking animals, particularly goats, wherein the animals are arranged side by side in two rows of milking compartments in a milking parlor. A robot arm construction is provided which is moved along the rear of the animals in the milking compartments of each row. Teat cups are provided behind each of the milking compartments which are retained in holders by a tension mechanism. A pair of rails are provided behind each row of milking compartments along which the robot arm constructions move supported via rollers which engage the rails. Each robot arm construction has an acquiring mechanism for grasping individually the teat cups and moving them forward and aft, pivoting them about a vertical pivot axis, and raising and lowering them.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for mixing fodder with another consumable material wherein a hopper having two compartments is drawn by a tractor or similar vehicle or is self-propelled. Two parallel feeding channels are provided in front of a plurality of animal's stalls in a building and a tractor together with a hopper move between the two feeding channels. There is a discharge device from each of the compartments of the hopper which extend outwardly into the feed channels to receive fodder from one compartment and another consumable material from the other compartment which are mixed together by mixing devices extending outwardly into the feed channels behind the discharge devices. The mixing device is powered by a power take-off shaft from the tractor and rotates to mix the fodder and other consumable material together. The rotation may be about vertical axes or horizontal axes, the latter extending either in the direction of travel of the tractor or transverse thereto.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for ascertaining and measuring the quality of milk by analyzing reflected or absorbed colors or both with which the milk is irradiated. The milk is thus irradiated with three colors of light in wavelengths of red, green and blue and the intensity and color of the light reflected by the milk or absorbed thereby, or both, is measured. The light sources are periodically switched off whereby the receiving sensors measure the same red, green and blue wavelengths due to background sources to the extent that they are reflected or absorbed or both by the milk. This data is then compared with data with the light sources switched on to produce the net data which is relevant to the milk as it is being received from the animal being milked.

Abstract: A method of and apparatus for automatic milking of animals which comprises a number of steps such as cleaning the animal's teats, connecting teat receiving cups to the animal, foremilking, the milking operation as such, stripping, disconnecting the teat cups and disinfecting the teats. For each step, there are at least two variants. With the same animal, during a milking operation or in successive milking operations, different variants are applied, the variants being selected randomly by a random generator or to change periodically. The variants include the intensity and how the cleaning members are applied to the animal's teats, the sequence in which the teat cups are connected to the animal's teats, the locations of kinking places in the liner of the teat cup, the pulsation frequency, the release-suction phase ratio of pulsation, and the force with which the teat cups are decoupled from the animal's teats at the end of the milking operation.

Abstract: An apparatus for automatically milking animals wherein teat cups are applied to the animals' teats by an automated robot, each teat cup comprising a shell and liner composed of flexible elastic material wherein the liner has an opening at its top to receive an animal's teat and in its lower aspect discharges milk in pulses to a milk conduit connected to a container for receiving and sharing the milk. Each teat cup includes a sensor for continually measuring instantaneous magnitudes of milk being received from the teat and a pulsator which controls the duration of contractions by the liner. The milking operation comprises a foremilking stage, a main milking stage and a stripping stage, the durations of which, as such, and durations of individual pulsations in each stage are electronically controlled based on data received from the sensor.

Abstract: A racking, pickup and windrowing implement for moving crop lying on the ground laterally which includes a first machine comprising rake wheels that rotate about substantially vertical axes and move the crop inwardly where it is picked up by a pick-up implement and conveyed to a displacing device which displaces the crop laterally and discharges it back on the ground in a windrow which is proximate the boundary of the strip being worked or, in one embodiment, the windrow is formed by discharging it laterally from the displacing device at a further distance away from the boundary of the strip being worked which is substantially equal to the width of the strip being worked. The displacing device comprises two endless members in series. Such endless members and the rake wheels are foldable upwardly so that the entire machine combination has a width suitable for transport.

Abstract: An apparatus for milking animals comprising a milking compartment including a milking robot for automatically connecting and disconnecting teat cups from the animal's teats and for automatically milking the animal. Embodiments of cleaning members for automatically cleaning the teats of the animal before the teat cups are connected thereto are disclosed. The cleaning members include mechanisms applied to the teats of the animal for removing the foremilk therefrom before the milking operation, as such, commences. In lieu of the cleaning members which not only automatically clean the teats of the animal but also remove the foremilk, another group of teat cups are optimally provided for this purpose. The cleaning members comprise two-rotating elements of various cross-sections. Their phases of the rotation or the distance between their axes of rotation or the shape of the elements or a combination thereof can be selectively modified to remove foremilk or to clean the teats.