Message from Research Programme Committee Chairs

Author(s):  
J.G. Jago ◽  
M.W. Woolford

There is a growing shortage of labour within the dairy industry. To address this the industry needs to attract more people and/or reduce the labour requirements on dairy farms. Current milk harvesting techniques contribute to both the labour requirements and the current labour shortage within the industry as the process is labour-intensive and necessitates long and unsociable working hours. Automated milking systems (AMS) have been in operation, albeit on a small scale, on commercial farms in Europe for a decade and may have the potential to address labour issues within the New Zealand dairy industry. A research programme has been established (The Greenfield Project) which aims to determine the feasibility of automated milking under New Zealand dairying conditions. A Fullwoods MERLIN AMS has been installed on a protoype farmlet and is successfully milking a small herd of 41 cows. Progress from the prototype Greenfields system offers considerable potential for implementing AMS in extensive grazing systems. Keywords: automated milking systems, dairy cattle, grazing, labour


2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry M. Manik

A preliminary research programme was carried out in order to study the acoustic wave reflection or target strength (TS) of tuna fish using a quantitative echo sounder (QES). The relationships between TS to fork length (FL) and swimbladder volume, for bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus) and yellowfin tuna (T. albacares) are investigated. The TS of bigeye tuna was about 3 dB higher than yellowfin tuna when comparing species at the same size. The result can be correlated to the swimbladder volume differencebetween species. The relationship between TS and swimbladder volume was quantified for both species.Keywords: tuna fish, target strength, quantitative echo sounder


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