MilkHub Drafting Gate

What is required of an automatic drafting gate?

An automatic drafting gate must firstly identify cows selected for drafting and secondly draft them as required, as accurately, reliably and with as little disruption to cow flow as possible. The drafting gate must also provide an easy to use interface for selecting cows to be drafted.

How does the MilkHub Drafting Gate work?

The MilkHub drafting gate tackles the issue of accurately identifying cows to be drafted by using a multi-axis EID antenna. This antenna is designed to read cow EID tags in either the right or left ear and employs a reading field that changes 10 times a second to eliminate "dead" spots that can occur with single panel antennas.

The MilkHub drafting gate uses fast moving gates hinged away from the cow entry in the same way that most manual drafting gates operate. These gates work together with the EID antenna system to provide for 3-way drafting without the need for entry "flapper" gates. Eliminating the "flapper" gates greatly reduces the interruption of cow flow as cows exit the milking shed.

How do I get cows to draft?

The MilkHub drafting gate will automatically draft cows in response to:

• An individual cow selection made by the pull cord while a cow is being milked
• An individual selection made by the keypad while the cow is being milked or at any other time
• Automatic selection of the worst mastitis cows (initiated by the pull cord)
• Automatic selection of the lowest yield cows (initiated by the pull cord)
• A selection made via the web-based management system based on the powerful decision support tools available
• Manual override buttons on the platform

These comprehensive methods for drafting give a simple but powerful capability both for in-shed staff or an in-office manager.

What else does the drafting gate do?

The drafting gate provides the ability to draft cows with missing or faulty EID tags when configured to do so via the web-based management system. This greatly helps in maintaining tags on all the cows.

The gate can be integrated with the Gallagher walkover weigher without the need for additional EID readers. This enables weights to be automatically recorded and presented as part of the web-based MilkHub management system data.