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A daily milk recording system using mounted data storage keyboards
J. agric. Engng Rex (1983) 28, 485-487
A Daily Milk Recording System using Mounted Storage Keyboards
Data
B. S. COULTER*
The milk recording system at Johnstown Castle Research Centre is described. The milk weighings are recorded by the milking staff on portable data storage keyboards mounted on a track above the calibrated milk jars. When recording is complete, the data are transmitted to the computer either by connecting the keyboards to a telephone line or directly to the computer using a special interface unit. The computer stores the data on disk and can print milk yield summaries as required. The system has facilitated daily milk recording of an experimental herd of 160 cows. Introduction The efficient management of a modern dairy herd requires a recording system for milk yields to enable the performance of the cows to be individually monitored. Usually, the cumulative milk yields are calculated by hand from morning and evening milk yields, weighed regularly for each cow. Recording and hand-calculation of cumulative yields for each cow is a tedious and error-prone procedure. For experimental herds in which daily recording is necessary, the management and computation of individual yields is much greater than for dairy farms taking monthly yields. In order to surmount these difficulties for the Johnstown Castle experimental herd of 160 cows, the use of mounted hand-held data storage keyboards for direct recording in the milking parlour was investigated. These devices resemble small desk calculators but are designed to allow large amounts of data to be keyed into their memory. The data may then be transmitted to a computer or printer either by direct connection to a suitable interface or accoustically via a telephone line. Keyboards were installed in the milking parlour in Johnstown Castle in 1979, and their use and value is described in the following sections.
Milk recording
The dairy herd at Johnstown Castle consists of 160 cows. These are currently being used to evaluate the productivity of different grass-clover mixtures (Gately, Finn and Whelan’) and daily milk yields are being recorded. The milking parlour is of standard herringbone design with 14 central milk recording jars. Before the data recorders were installed, the milk volumes were written on paper slips attached to each jar by adhesive tape. At the end of the dairy, the paper slips were collected and submitted to the computer section for keypunching. The paper slips had several disadvantages. The milker had to dry his hands before recording the milk volumes, even then the slips tended to get wet and become difficult to write on. The key punching of the data each day took a considerable amount of time. To obviate these difficulties, a Telxon 716 data storage keyboard was installed in the milking parlour. The keyboard was waterproofed by being placed in a polythene bag and then enclosed in a specially designed mild-steel case with a window in front for the keypad and display. A 1.5 pin socket is mounted at the top of the waterproof case for connection to the battery charger and ‘Agricultural
Institute,
Received 28 February
Johnstown
Castle, Wexford, Ireland
1983; accepted in revised form 26 April 1983
485 0021~8634/83/050485
i 03 SO3.00/0
0
1983 The British Society for Research in Agricultural
Engineering
486
DAILY
MILK
RECORDING
SYSTEM
data transmission cable. This is connected internally to a socket on the keyboard itself. When the keyboard is in use, the outer socket is covered by a heavy rubber band. The waterproofed keyboard can be seen in Fig. 1 shown mounted in the parlour for milk recording. The keyboard is suspended at eye-level from a steel bar attached to a trolley which runs along a “garage door” track for the full length of the milking pit (Fig. f). The track is mounted above and just forward of the milking jars, on the side having the graduations. The milking staff can easily slide the unit in front of any of the jars for milk recording.
Fig. 1. Recording cow number and milk yield during milking
The recording procedure is both simple and rapid. When a cow has finished giving milk, the milker removes her cluster and reads her identity number from her rump. He then reads her milk-volume from the jar, releases her milk to the milk line and keys her identity and milk yield into the keyboard. He slides the keyboard to the next jar with a gentle push and is then ready to deal with the next cow. Transmitting
the data
During milk recording, the figures keyed into the Telxon keyboard are stored in its memory. The unit has enough storage for approximately 1000 cow records so the data must be transmitted to the computer periodically and the memory cleared. At Johnstown Castle, the data are transmitted twice per week. This can be done by bringing the keyboard to the computer centre, plugging it into the Teltran interface unit and pressing the “send” button on the Telxon keyboard. The data are transmitted to the Digital PDP I l/34 computer at the rate of 60 characters/s (600 baud), are displayed on the V.D.U. as they arrive, and are stored in a disk-file in the computer. Alternatively, the keyboard may be taken to the dairy office for data transmission by telephone. The milker plugs an acoustic muff into the Spin socket on the keyboard then dials the number of the data phone in the computer centre. When given a signal by the computer operator the milker fits the acoustic muff (special loudspeaker) over the mouthpiece of the ‘phone and presses the “send” button on the keyboard. Computer processing When the data have been transmitted and stored on disk by one of the above procedures, they must be validated by the computer. Each cow identity number is checked for validity and duplication. The percentage change in milk yield from the last milking is calculated and any large differences are printed as possible errors.
B.
S.
487
COULTER
The computer can, at any time, give cumulative for different time periods.
yield summaries
for any cow or group of cows
Discussion Milk recording in the dairy has been a tedious and error-prone procedure in the past and many attempts have been made to simplify and automate it. The use of a cassette recorder and microphone for verbal recording has the disadvantage of needing further transcription by a typist and this job is made more difficult and error-prone by the high noise levels in a dairy. Systems using mini- or micro-computers, linked to load cells for milk weighing and transponder units for animal recognition and automatic meal feeding (Hollis2), are expensive and their purchase is probably justified only on large herds. Their main advantage is that they enable management systems to be applied to the dairy herd. Foss Electric (PerroV) have developed a system using a magnetic band on milk sample bottles to store the cow identity and milk yield. These are keyed in manually in the dairy but are read automatically by a special sample analysis system in the laboratory. The Foss Electric system is also expensive-it is mainly of value in large herds when each sample recorded is being analysed for milk fat and protein. The hand-held keyboard system is, on the other hand, relatively cheap. A Telxon 716 with 8k memory costs approximately &600. It is, of course, necessary to have either direct or telephone access to a computer system which can accept the data. A Teltran interface device costs about 000. These devices are available from Computer Applied Techniques Ltd, St James Tee.. Malahide, Co. Dublin. The Telxon 7 16 terminals are battery-powered and therefore need to be kept charged. However, they switch themselves off automatically if not used for a period of 2 min so as to conserve battery power. The data are retained in the memory even when the unit is switched off so there is no risk of loss. When data are transmitted to the computer by telephone line, the likelihood of transmission errors depends on the quality of the line and on the transmission speed. Direct transmission to the computer does not have these difficulties but requires that the computer centre be convenient to the dairy. The recording system has also been found useful in a pilot scheme involving several dairy farmers who shared a Telxon 716 and transmitted the recordings by telephone to the computer each month.” Conclusions The use of portable keyboards in the milking parlour has enabled large amounts of milk recording data to be entered into the Johnstown Castle computer without difficulty. This allowed computer processing of dairy yield records for the experimental herd thus giving greater accuracy than if the cumulative yields were obtained from less frequent recordings. Acknowledgements The author wishes to thank Mr P. Hayes for design of the carriage and waterproofing systems, Mr W. E. Murphy for useful ideas and discussion and the staff in the milking parlour at Johnstown Castle for helping to make the system work so well. REFERENCES
Gately, T. F.; Finn, T.; Whelan, S. Evaluation of grass/clover species and cultivars for milk production. Agricultural Institute, Ireland, Res. Rep., 1979 12 2 Hollis, P. The e&t of computerisation on milk production. J. Sot. Dairy Technol., 1980 33 140-142 ’ Perrot, M. Milk recording: from the milkoscope to the sample cassette. Prod. Laiti&e, 1980 83 7-9, 11-13 ’ Coulter, B. Milk recording. Agricultural Institute, Ireland, Res. Rep., 1980 18 1
A Daily Milk Recording System using Mounted Storage Keyboards
Data
B. S. COULTER*
The milk recording system at Johnstown Castle Research Centre is described. The milk weighings are recorded by the milking staff on portable data storage keyboards mounted on a track above the calibrated milk jars. When recording is complete, the data are transmitted to the computer either by connecting the keyboards to a telephone line or directly to the computer using a special interface unit. The computer stores the data on disk and can print milk yield summaries as required. The system has facilitated daily milk recording of an experimental herd of 160 cows. Introduction The efficient management of a modern dairy herd requires a recording system for milk yields to enable the performance of the cows to be individually monitored. Usually, the cumulative milk yields are calculated by hand from morning and evening milk yields, weighed regularly for each cow. Recording and hand-calculation of cumulative yields for each cow is a tedious and error-prone procedure. For experimental herds in which daily recording is necessary, the management and computation of individual yields is much greater than for dairy farms taking monthly yields. In order to surmount these difficulties for the Johnstown Castle experimental herd of 160 cows, the use of mounted hand-held data storage keyboards for direct recording in the milking parlour was investigated. These devices resemble small desk calculators but are designed to allow large amounts of data to be keyed into their memory. The data may then be transmitted to a computer or printer either by direct connection to a suitable interface or accoustically via a telephone line. Keyboards were installed in the milking parlour in Johnstown Castle in 1979, and their use and value is described in the following sections.
Milk recording
The dairy herd at Johnstown Castle consists of 160 cows. These are currently being used to evaluate the productivity of different grass-clover mixtures (Gately, Finn and Whelan’) and daily milk yields are being recorded. The milking parlour is of standard herringbone design with 14 central milk recording jars. Before the data recorders were installed, the milk volumes were written on paper slips attached to each jar by adhesive tape. At the end of the dairy, the paper slips were collected and submitted to the computer section for keypunching. The paper slips had several disadvantages. The milker had to dry his hands before recording the milk volumes, even then the slips tended to get wet and become difficult to write on. The key punching of the data each day took a considerable amount of time. To obviate these difficulties, a Telxon 716 data storage keyboard was installed in the milking parlour. The keyboard was waterproofed by being placed in a polythene bag and then enclosed in a specially designed mild-steel case with a window in front for the keypad and display. A 1.5 pin socket is mounted at the top of the waterproof case for connection to the battery charger and ‘Agricultural
Institute,
Received 28 February
Johnstown
Castle, Wexford, Ireland
1983; accepted in revised form 26 April 1983
485 0021~8634/83/050485
i 03 SO3.00/0
0
1983 The British Society for Research in Agricultural
Engineering
486
DAILY
MILK
RECORDING
SYSTEM
data transmission cable. This is connected internally to a socket on the keyboard itself. When the keyboard is in use, the outer socket is covered by a heavy rubber band. The waterproofed keyboard can be seen in Fig. 1 shown mounted in the parlour for milk recording. The keyboard is suspended at eye-level from a steel bar attached to a trolley which runs along a “garage door” track for the full length of the milking pit (Fig. f). The track is mounted above and just forward of the milking jars, on the side having the graduations. The milking staff can easily slide the unit in front of any of the jars for milk recording.
Fig. 1. Recording cow number and milk yield during milking
The recording procedure is both simple and rapid. When a cow has finished giving milk, the milker removes her cluster and reads her identity number from her rump. He then reads her milk-volume from the jar, releases her milk to the milk line and keys her identity and milk yield into the keyboard. He slides the keyboard to the next jar with a gentle push and is then ready to deal with the next cow. Transmitting
the data
During milk recording, the figures keyed into the Telxon keyboard are stored in its memory. The unit has enough storage for approximately 1000 cow records so the data must be transmitted to the computer periodically and the memory cleared. At Johnstown Castle, the data are transmitted twice per week. This can be done by bringing the keyboard to the computer centre, plugging it into the Teltran interface unit and pressing the “send” button on the Telxon keyboard. The data are transmitted to the Digital PDP I l/34 computer at the rate of 60 characters/s (600 baud), are displayed on the V.D.U. as they arrive, and are stored in a disk-file in the computer. Alternatively, the keyboard may be taken to the dairy office for data transmission by telephone. The milker plugs an acoustic muff into the Spin socket on the keyboard then dials the number of the data phone in the computer centre. When given a signal by the computer operator the milker fits the acoustic muff (special loudspeaker) over the mouthpiece of the ‘phone and presses the “send” button on the keyboard. Computer processing When the data have been transmitted and stored on disk by one of the above procedures, they must be validated by the computer. Each cow identity number is checked for validity and duplication. The percentage change in milk yield from the last milking is calculated and any large differences are printed as possible errors.
B.
S.
487
COULTER
The computer can, at any time, give cumulative for different time periods.
yield summaries
for any cow or group of cows
Discussion Milk recording in the dairy has been a tedious and error-prone procedure in the past and many attempts have been made to simplify and automate it. The use of a cassette recorder and microphone for verbal recording has the disadvantage of needing further transcription by a typist and this job is made more difficult and error-prone by the high noise levels in a dairy. Systems using mini- or micro-computers, linked to load cells for milk weighing and transponder units for animal recognition and automatic meal feeding (Hollis2), are expensive and their purchase is probably justified only on large herds. Their main advantage is that they enable management systems to be applied to the dairy herd. Foss Electric (PerroV) have developed a system using a magnetic band on milk sample bottles to store the cow identity and milk yield. These are keyed in manually in the dairy but are read automatically by a special sample analysis system in the laboratory. The Foss Electric system is also expensive-it is mainly of value in large herds when each sample recorded is being analysed for milk fat and protein. The hand-held keyboard system is, on the other hand, relatively cheap. A Telxon 716 with 8k memory costs approximately &600. It is, of course, necessary to have either direct or telephone access to a computer system which can accept the data. A Teltran interface device costs about 000. These devices are available from Computer Applied Techniques Ltd, St James Tee.. Malahide, Co. Dublin. The Telxon 7 16 terminals are battery-powered and therefore need to be kept charged. However, they switch themselves off automatically if not used for a period of 2 min so as to conserve battery power. The data are retained in the memory even when the unit is switched off so there is no risk of loss. When data are transmitted to the computer by telephone line, the likelihood of transmission errors depends on the quality of the line and on the transmission speed. Direct transmission to the computer does not have these difficulties but requires that the computer centre be convenient to the dairy. The recording system has also been found useful in a pilot scheme involving several dairy farmers who shared a Telxon 716 and transmitted the recordings by telephone to the computer each month.” Conclusions The use of portable keyboards in the milking parlour has enabled large amounts of milk recording data to be entered into the Johnstown Castle computer without difficulty. This allowed computer processing of dairy yield records for the experimental herd thus giving greater accuracy than if the cumulative yields were obtained from less frequent recordings. Acknowledgements The author wishes to thank Mr P. Hayes for design of the carriage and waterproofing systems, Mr W. E. Murphy for useful ideas and discussion and the staff in the milking parlour at Johnstown Castle for helping to make the system work so well. REFERENCES
Gately, T. F.; Finn, T.; Whelan, S. Evaluation of grass/clover species and cultivars for milk production. Agricultural Institute, Ireland, Res. Rep., 1979 12 2 Hollis, P. The e&t of computerisation on milk production. J. Sot. Dairy Technol., 1980 33 140-142 ’ Perrot, M. Milk recording: from the milkoscope to the sample cassette. Prod. Laiti&e, 1980 83 7-9, 11-13 ’ Coulter, B. Milk recording. Agricultural Institute, Ireland, Res. Rep., 1980 18 1