US 12,310,326 B2
Method and milking device for milking a dairy animal
Peter Leonardus Hendricus Jennen, Waddinxveen (NL); and Pieter Gerlof De Groot, Giessenburg (NL)
Assigned to LELY PATENT N.V., Maassluis (NL)
Appl. No. 17/784,043
Filed by LELY PATENT N.V., Maassluis (NL)
PCT Filed Nov. 25, 2020, PCT No. PCT/NL2020/050740
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jun. 9, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/118342, PCT Pub. Date Jun. 17, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 2024417 (NL), filed on Dec. 10, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2023/0017182 A1, Jan. 19, 2023
Int. Cl. A01J 5/017 (2006.01); A01J 5/01 (2006.01); G05B 13/02 (2006.01)
CPC A01J 5/017 (2013.01) [A01J 5/01 (2013.01); G05B 13/024 (2013.01)] 23 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for milking, a dairy animal by means of a milking device with milking cups and a measuring device for measuring a milk parameter, the method comprising:
identifying the dairy animal,
determining a milking interval being a time since a previous milking of said dairy animal,
attaching one of the milking cups to a teat of the dairy animal,
calculating at least one expected value of the milk parameter of the dairy animal according to a first formula, wherein the first formula depends on the milking interval and on historical values of said milk parameter of the identified dairy animal measured during one or more previous milkings by the measuring device,
milking a teat of the dairy animal in a present milking, and
detaching the milking cup when a first detachment criterion has been met,
wherein use is made of the at least one expected value of the milk parameter during milking or detaching, without using an actual value of the milk parameter for the milking,
wherein the actual value is the value of the milk parameter when the milking of the teat takes place using a second detachment criterion which is stricter than the first detachment criterion, and wherein the method furthermore comprises:
measuring, when the actual value of said milk parameter has not been measured for at least a predetermined number of milkings preceding the present milking and/or for all milkings for at least a predetermined time period preceding the present milking, the actual value of said milk parameter for the present milking, and
updating, when said measured actual value differs from said expected value, automatically updating, with and in the milking device, the first formula by means of the determined milking interval for the present milking and the measured actual value of the milk parameter of the present milking.