Designing, manufacturing and testing of automatic liquid feeding machine prototype

Livestock sector in our country and in the world is an important economic return. Cattle breeding constitutes an important part of the livestock sector. One of the most important elements of herd management and continuation in cattle breeding is the care and feeding of calves. After the calves are born, they are placed in calf huts separately from the herd. In these huts, they are fed manually by the workers with milk and milk powder formulas for 2-3 months. There are many issues that need to be considered for calf development and health in this feeding process, and it is difficult for workers to pay attention to these issues. Attention to these issues is very important for the development and health of calves and should not depend on the human factor. In this study, automatic liquid feeding machine design and prototype production has been made in accordance with the developing technology in the world and in our country and according to the issues to be considered in calf feeding. In addition, our patent application has been made as an automatic calf feeding method and is about to be finalized. Firstly, the conditions for feeding calves and the housing conditions were determined. Mechanical design in accordance with these conditions is designed in three dimensions in computer environment. Designed parts are produced in accordance with the design. The electrical elements required for the automatic operation of the machine are collected in the electrical panel and assembled accordingly. Ardunio card was used as the controller. The software required to run all the hardware of the Ardunio card is coded. As a result, the machine is completely manufactured and assembled. The machine was then tested for 20 days by feeding a Holstein calf. The machine and the calf were observed during the test and the problems occurred were identified.