AUTOMATIC WEIGHING OF DAIRY-COWS

An electronic weighing system combined with an automatic individual identification system was used with a commercial herd to record cow weights three times a day, without interference to normal procedures. Dedicated real-time software and special algorithms were developed to obtain accurate weights on-line. Eighty-five cows were measured during complete lactations over a period of 3 years. The accuracy of the walk through weighing system was 1·5%. No less than 65% of the cows were weighed routinely at least once daily and all cows in the group had at least five weights recorded weekly. Automatic weighing of cows proved to be feasible as an additional real-time on-line parameter. © 1993 Silsoe Research Institute.