Healthier hooves thanks to a unique manure robot designed for cleaning solid barn floors

A clean barn floor results in less manure in the cubicles and cleaner hooves, tails and udders. This prevents hygiene-related claw and udder infections and promotes the healthy natural behaviour of the cows, which in turn lets you determine their fertility more efficiently. Today, there still isn’t a good solution for clearing solid barn floors. That is why Lely developed the Discovery 120 Collector: a revolutionary robot designed for solid floors that takes the manure away rather than scraping it. This not only results in a cleaner floor, but also prevents the cows from standing in manure up to their dew claws, as is the case when a manure scraper is used.

June 10, 2017

Press

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Collecting manure instead of scraping

Lely has been manufacturing robots for cleaning slatted floors for a long time now. With the introduction of this collector for solid floors Lely has a new addition for its range of scrapers for open floors. Rather than pushing the manure forward, it gets collected and subsequently released above a dumping location. The Discovery 120 Collector uses water to thin the manure and a vacuum pump to collect the slurry in a manure tank.

Water for a cleaner result and additional grip

The Discovery Collector sprays water from the front and back of the machine. Spraying from the front results in better manure intake and from the back to leave behind a wet floor for additional grip. This water is tanked independently and is stored in two water bags in the manure tank. As the manure tank gets filled the volume of the water bags decreases, freeing up more space for manure. This makes it a compact machine. Cows can easily move past it and the Discovery Collector can drive below the sorting gates.

No obstacles and maximum flexibility

The Discovery Collector navigates independently using built-in sensors. Furthermore, cables, corner pulleys and heightened side corridors are not necessary, as opposed to when working with a manure scraper for instance. Fewer obstacles decrease the incidence of white line defects and ensures the cows can move through the barn more safely. Rest assured that the routes of the cleaning programme can be easily tuned to the daily rhythm of the farm.