Analysis and simulation of driving times for large dairy barns.

Dairy farming in Germany is marked by a trend towards ever larger herds, with herds of 1000 dairy cattle and more being nothing out of the ordinary nowadays. The problem of animal logistics in the cowshed arises when herds of this size are planned, and for this reason herding procedures on a large-scale dairy farm in Thuringia/Germany were analysed and the data was applied on different models of barns. Due to the size of such a large-scale dairy farm, stalls cannot be located at an equal distance from the holding area and there are great variations in the individual distances covered. This meant that the speed of movement ranged from 0.13 m/s to 1.06 m/s. The analysis of the model stables shows that even small structural changes can cause immense changes in the distances and therefore also in time necessary. To optimize the distance a quadratic compartmentalised house is the best solution.