Assisting on a robotic farm during start up in New Zealand
Education: Bachelor/HBO
Project: Assist on a dairy farm where robots are introduced
start time: August 2008
Calf Rearing
Education: Bachelor
Project: Find out what is the best system to rear calfs with a calf drinking station
Barn Designing
Education: Bachelor
Project: Learn about the different choices in barn design, like feed fence, cubicle options etc, to advise what things take to take into account when designing a barn.
Desk study analysing (silent) heat length and moment of insemination
Education: HBO/bachelor
Based on date of farms that use the QWes-HR tag to analyse heat and health abnormalities, an axtra analyse can be done to learn about inseminination effect.
Designing robotic barns in 3D environment
Education: Bachelor (HBO)
Location: Maassluis
Project:Select the right software to generate 3D barn layouts. This needs to be possible, with very userfriendly design software.
Setting up a knowledge database for robotic farm management
Education: HBO/University level.
Location: Maassluis.
Project: Within the Lely company there is a lot ofknowledge about robotic farm management available. The aim of this project is to combine all this information and put it into a database for the internet.
Feeding strategy with the milking robot
Education: University level.
Location: Maassluis.
Project: When a milking robot is introduced, the feeding strategy needs to be suitable for robotic milking. Within the project the scientific evidence for ''healthy'' feeding needs to be examined.
Research into possible unrest in cow herds
Education: Higher Vocational Education (HBO).
Location: Maassluis.
Project: responses to machine anomalies (expired limit for teat cup removal, expired vacuum level/pulsation, loose earthing) or anomalies in the environment (flies) can be signals, because the whole herd can become more restive during milking. Matters such as feed distribution can also cause kicking off teat cups, or slower milking.
Data collection, cow movement
Education: HBO/University Science Education (WO).
Location: Maassluis.
Project: practice shows that free cow movement is better than any form of forced cow movement. The goal is to study in the literature and in practice why free movement is better and why Lely should continue to promote it. This is all assessed from the viewpoint of welfare, robot efficiency and successful robotic milking.
Comparison of individual SCC with bulk tank data
Education: HBO.
Project: at several farms, observing if and how the tank data differ from the individual data for SCC generated on the farm.
Analysis of robotic milking data
Education: HBO.
Project: analysis of all data produced on a robotic milking farm.
Assessment of new Cosmix concentrate feeding station
Education: HBO
Project: research into the new Cosmix concentrate feeding station.
Analysis of sensor data to further improve attentions
Education: HBO/WO.
Project: with the advent of the milking robot, much more data are known about every cow. These sensor data will be utilised in this project.
Elaboration of an idea concerning air supply to cows and practical testing
Education : Higher Technical/Agricultural School (HTS/HAS).
Project: in many stalls the cows do not get any fresh, cool air. How do the animals react if fresh, cool air is provided? The goal is to work out an idea using hardware. Behavioural observations on the animals must be provided.