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British Cow Feeding System
The weekly British farm magazine, Farmer’s Weekly, holds an invention contest each year. Machinery editor David Cousins was kind enough to send us photos and a few details of this year’s winners. Here are a few that caught our eye:

Cow Feeding System - Yorkshire farmer Tim Gibson milks his 200-head cow herd with robots. To improve productivity, he decided to automate mixed ration feeding as well with a centralized feed mixer that sends feed into the free-stall barns with a chain-paddle system in troughs that works like an inverted barn cleaner. He built the system entirely from scratch, using a big feed blender salvaged from a feed mill and conveyor chain and paddles from a vegetable packing plant. The electric-powered system runs on 3-phase power. Since installing, milk production is up and labor costs are way down. On most days, the farm can be managed by one person. A loader tractor fills the intake hopper with silage while concentrates and grain are delivered via augers. The system is programmed to deliver fresh feed every 2 hrs. (Tim Gibson; tim@tim-gibson.co.uk)


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2015 - Volume #39, Issue #1