Dairy farm monitoring for parlors, bulk milk coolers, barns and troughs
Dairy farm monitoring tracks the water, electricity and cooling a farm runs on, from the milking parlor and bulk milk cooler to barn fans and water troughs. Aqueduct measures each against its own baseline, flags a cooler that is slow to pull milk down, a trough that keeps running or a fan left on, and routes the fix, with fans and pumps controlled where enabled with owner approval.
What goes wrong on a farm between rounds
Milk that cools too slowly
A struggling condenser or low refrigerant shows up first as slow pull down in the bulk tank, long before the alarm.
Troughs that never stop
A stuck float valve runs water around the clock and floods the area around the trough until someone notices.
Fans left on or off
Barn fans run full speed on a cool night, or stay off on a hot afternoon when cows need the air.
One meter for everything
The farm sees one electricity bill and one water source, and cannot say what the parlor, cooler or barns cost.
What the numbers say.
per cow per day can go to cleaning the parlor, holding pen and milking equipment.
Source: Ohio State Universitydaily maintenance water intake for a lactating cow over 1,400 lb, before milk production.
Source: Ohio State UniversitySources1 references cited on this page
Related
Common questions
Measure milk temperature continuously, along with compressor run time and power. Aqueduct tracks how long the tank takes to pull milk down after each milking and flags slow pull down, which often points to a condenser or refrigeration problem before an alarm trips.
Yes, where the trough line is metered. Water that keeps flowing at night or runs continuously against its baseline is flagged as probable loss, with the line and the time it started, so a stuck float valve is found the same day.
Not across the whole farm. LoRaWAN sensors reach long distances to a gateway, and the gateway connects over Ethernet, Wi-Fi or LTE. A wireless survey sets the gateway positions before installation.
Yes, where control is enabled, with owner approval. LoRaWAN relays switch barn fans on temperature and humidity readings, so fans run when cows need air and stop on cool nights, and every switch is logged. See controllers and actuators.
See Aqueduct on your own facility.
Bring a site, a utility bill or a question. We will show you where the loss is.