• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.165-170
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• 2002

This study was carried out to measure the 3D-distance of a cow model teat for an application possibility on Robotic Milking System(RMS). A teat recognition algorithm was made to find 3D-distance of the model by using Gonzalrez's theory. Some of the results are as follows. 1 . In the distance measurement experiment on the test board, as the measured length, and the length between the center of image surface and the measured image point became longer, their error values increased. 2. The model teat was installed and measured the error value at the random position. The error value of X and Y coordinates was less than 5㎜, and that of Z coordinates was less than 20㎜. The error value increased as the distance of camera's increased. 3. The equation for distance information acquirement was satisfied with obtaining accurate distance that was necessary for a milking robot to trace teats, A teat recognition algorithm was recognized well four model cow teats. It's processing time was about 1 second. It appeared that a teat recognition algorithm could be used to determine the 3D-distance of the cow teat to develop a RMS.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.143-150
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• 2004

This study was conducted to analyze the relationship between the occurrence of mastitis and the conformation of udders, teats, and teat tips of Holstein cows raised in Korea. Udders, teats, and teat tips were categorized by their conformation and the teat length, teat diameter and the distance from the tip of teat to the ground of 259 cows were measured. The most common shapes of udder, teats and teat tip were milking machine udder (27.4%), U-shaped teats (53.9%) and disk teat tip (53.8%), respectively. Mean teat length and diameters were 4.78 cm and 3.11 cm, respectively. The length and the diameter of front teats were significantly longer and wider than those of rear teats. However, the distance of the tip of teats to the ground was similar between front teats $(50.5{\pm}7.51cm)$ and rear teats $(50.7{\pm}8.83cm)$. The average daily milk yield was 26.4 kg/day, and the highest milk yield was observed from cows with large udder shape and above 4th lactation.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.159-164
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• 2002

The distance between teats of each head on twenty heads of holstein was measured in Nation Livestock Research Institute of Rural Development Administration to find design variables on the teat-cup attachment system of the auto-milking system before milking. The distance between teats was tested by the steps for milk producing in the morning and evening. The results from this study is summarized as follow. 1 The maximum and minimum length between front teats were 297mm and 112mm respectively, the maximum and minimum length between rear teats were 231mm and 36mm and the maximum and minimum length between left front and left rear were 220 and 84mm. And the maximum length of right front and right rear were 205mm and 90mm. A relative position of the each teats was asymmetric. 2. The size of teats, the length between front teats, and the length between rear teats by lactating period were very much changed for its milking. 3. The design variables on the teat-cup attachment system was found by the length between each teats tested. Since the position of teat-cup is changed by milking environment for a cow to milk, the design variables should be considered to be asymmetric area between four teat of COW.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.93-100
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• 2011

This study was conducted to verify the applicability of robot milking system through acquisition and analysis of model teat's position information using scanning range finder (SRF). Model teats, same size and shape as real teats, were designed to analyze the properties according to the material, distance error and angle error of the sensor. In addition, 2-dimensional distance information of each teats was obtained at same time with 4 teat models and the result were as follows. 1. In the case of the fingers on the experiment for selection of materials for teat model, the distance error was from 4.3 mm to 1.3 mm, average was 2.8 mm as a minimum record. In the case of rubber material, average distance error was 4.3 mm. So, this material was considered to be a most suitable model. 2. The distance error was maximum at 100 mm distance. The more distance increased, the less error increased up to 300 mm. Then the error increased after 300 mm and decreased again. 3. The maximum angle error of 10.1 mm was measured at $170^{\circ}$, in case of $70^{\circ}$ the error was 0.2 mm as a minimum value. There was no specific tendency to error of angle. 4. In the 2-dimensional location error for 4 teat models, distance error was 3.8 mm as minimum and 7.2 mm as maximum. The angle error was $1.2^{\circ}$ as maximum. All of errors were included within the accuracy of sensor, the robot milking system was considered to be applicable to measure the distance of teats due to the measuring velocity of SRF and the hole size of teat-cup.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.172-176
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• 2007

The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between udder and teat characteristics and somatic cell count (SCC). A total of 749 (73.1%) milk samples from 1,024 quarters of 259 Holstein cows contained less than 200,000 somatic cells/ml, while 132 (12.9%) quarters contained more than 500,000 somatic cells/ml. Prior to data analysis, somatic cell counts were transformed to natural logarithm. The mean SCS {$log_e(SCS/10^3)$} of milk samples from the front quarters was lower than milk samples from the rear quarters. The highest SCS was observed from cows with the step-shaped udder and the pear-shaped teats, respectively. Increased SCS was observed from cows with large teat diameter, short teat length, short distance between the teat tip to floor (p<0.05) and with increase in parity, respectively.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.1174-1181
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• 2007

To study the immunity of the buffalo mammary gland during involution and around parturition and compare it with the mastitic mammary gland, milk samples were collected from 9 Murrah buffaloes during the above critical periods. SCC of buffalo milk increased significantly (p<0.01) by day 21 of involution and one week prepartum. SCC was significantly higher around parturition but became normal at 14 days postpartum. Phagocytic activity (PA) and phagocytic index (PI) of the buffalo milk neutrophils decreased as the duration of the dry period increased. Elevated levels of immunoglobulins at calving improved the PA and PI, but the lowest PA of 18.8% and PI of 1.75 were recorded at 7 days postpartum. Buffaloes suffering from clinical mastitis had PA of 12.3% and PI of 1.46 that increased significantly (p<0.01) on the third day of treatment. Distance of teat from ground level was found to be minimum at one week before parturition. The investigation showed that in vitro phagocytic activity of buffalo neutrophils was weakest at one week postpartum.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.617-623
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• 2008

A fine-mapping method exploiting linkage disequilibrium was used to detect quantitative trait loci (QTL) on the X chromosome affecting milk production, body conformation and productivity traits. The pedigree comprised 22 paternal half-sib families of Black-and-White Holstein bulls in the Netherlands in a grand-daughter design for a total of 955 sons. Twenty-five microsatellite markers were genotyped to construct a linkage map on the chromosome X spanning 170 Haldane cM with an average inter-marker distance of 7.1 cM. A covariance matrix including elements about identical-by-descent probabilities between haplotypes regarding QTL allele effects was incorporated into the animal model, and a restricted maximum-likelihood method was applied for the presence of QTL using the LDVCM program. Significance thresholds were obtained by permuting haplotypes to phenotypes and by using a false discovery rate procedure. Seven QTL responsible for conformation types (teat length, rump width, rear leg set, angularity and fore udder attachment), behavior (temperament) and a mixture of production and health (durable prestation) were detected at the suggestive level. Some QTL affecting teat length, rump width, durable prestation and rear leg set had small numbers of haplotype clusters, which may indicate good classification of alleles for causal genes or markers that are tightly associated with the causal mutation. However, higher maker density is required to better refine the QTL position and to better characterize functionally distinct haplotypes which will provide information to find causal genes for the traits.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.30 no.5 s.112
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• pp.293-298
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was the development of a multi-joint robot manipulator for milking robot system. The multi-joint robot manipulator was controlled by 5 drivers with driver controller through the position information obtained from the image processing system. The robot manipulator to automatically attach each teat cup to the teats of a milking cow was developed and it's motion was accurately measured with error rate. Results were as follows. 1. Maximum errors in position accuracy were 4mm along X-axis, 4.5mm along Y-axis and 0.9mm along Z-axis. Absolute distance errors were maximum 4.8mm, minimum 2.7mm, and average 3.6mm. 2. Errors of repeatability were maximum 3.0mm along X-axis, 3.0mm along Y-axis, and 0.5mm along Z-axis. Distance error values were maximum 3.2mm, minimum 2.2mm, and average 2.5mm. It is envisaged that multi-joint robot manipulator can be applicate to milking robot system being developed in consideration of the experiment results.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.171-176
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• 2002

Physical parameters of milk cow were measured to design and build RMS(Robotic Milking System) with a tape-measurer and body parameter measurer. The parameters are very important variables to design an RMS. For the working zone space of an RMS manipulator and the movement blunting of milk cow, an interval frame was installed on the stall bottom, and then cow's behavioral reactions were tested. The results from this study is summarized as follow. 1. On the general physical condition measurement, the maximum, minimum and average body length of cow which is related to the space that the manipulator could work into the RMS were 175cm, 144cm, and 163cm respectively. It appeared that the average distance between bottom and chest was 60cm. 2. The average length between fore teats, fore and hind teats and hind teats were 178mm, 150mm and 95mm respectively. It appeared that the average length between bottom and teat attachments was 544mm, and the average length between fore teats and tail-end was 331mm. 3. Although a cow kept a some extent length between hind legs for milking, it looked a stable pose. However, the cow kept a some extent distance between front legs for milking, it looked a unstable pose. Based on results of this test, an interval frame of stall bottom should be installed around the position which was located at its hind legs.