Automated Milk Manager for Routine Cows
3rd Year Farm to Table Studio - Professor Mark Stanley
This project challenges the current operations of dairy farms. As farming increasingly becomes a more difficult profession, farmers are looking towards automation to save time in their daily operation. My approach is to design in a way that appealed to the natural behaviors of the cows, by playing with lights, contrast, scratchers, etc. The cows are also equipped with RFID tags that collect data, and help keep track of milk production, consumption, and movement. This data not only helps the farmer keep track of his herd, but the data is used on a constant updating twitter feed, adding a direct connection to the consumer. The farm is set up to be a profit/benefit system to those who play in part: the farmer, the distributor, the consumer, and most importantly, the cow.
This project challenges the current operations of dairy farms. As farming increasingly becomes a more difficult profession, farmers are looking towards automation to save time in their daily operation. My approach is to design in a way that appealed to the natural behaviors of the cows, by playing with lights, contrast, scratchers, etc. The cows are also equipped with RFID tags that collect data, and help keep track of milk production, consumption, and movement. This data not only helps the farmer keep track of his herd, but the data is used on a constant updating twitter feed, adding a direct connection to the consumer. The farm is set up to be a profit/benefit system to those who play in part: the farmer, the distributor, the consumer, and most importantly, the cow.
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Collaging helps to discover truth, relations, and information about a certain subject. In order to understand the daily process of producing milk, I compared the cow to the machine. The first machine to producing milk is the cow, with the udder as the main mechanism. In order to produce milk, the cow must be fed to produce energy, and must regularly calf. The milk is pulled from the udders to holding tanks, then goes through a series of processes like pasteurization and homogenization before bottling and being shipped to the store.
Collaging also helps layout the workings for my design, as in what triggers “Bovine Behavior”, the different functionalities in “Routine Milking”, and using technology as a “Automated Manager” for this new farm. 
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