A Design of Smart Feeding System for Dairy Cows Farm

Abstract

In this study, we present the design of an automatic food supply system for dairy cows using an expert calculation formula based on collected data, including temperature and humidity of the barns, cow movement, daily milk production, the breeds and ages of the herd. When the expert system calculates the amount of the total mixed ration (TMR) feed to provide to the cows, it will transfer the TMR value to the proposed system to provide the exact amount of the daily feed. The designed feeding system performs 3 tasks: 1) Accurately quantify the amount of the TMR feed ingredients according to the formula including chopped grass and fine feed portions; 2) Mixing the measured ingredients during a preset time from the system; 3) Transporting the feed after mixing to the feeding trough for dairy cows and then automatically retrieving the leftover feed. The proposed system was tested at the Tan Tai Loc dairy cow farm, Soc Trang City, Vietnam. The results show that the automatic weighing system can reach ±0.5% accuracy, and the proposed feeding system can minimize feed loss and eliminate overfeeding to promote good cow health and performance.