Goat stanchions for commercial milking

The goal of the project is to produce a well engineered design for commercial grade goat milking stanchions. The design will then be produced in the form of a well documented engineering drawing package with manufacturing and installation instructions for the convenience of client and their customers.

=Problem Definition=

Background
Dairy goat farming is one of the fastest growing agricultural movements in the United States. Dairy goat herds have risen by %61 percent over the last decade. However, with the rise in popularity there is a problem for U.S based farmers. There currently is limited commercial grade milk stanchion manufactures in the United States and these products being produced are either single goat stanchions or high numbered stanchion systems. This is fine for huge scale operations or the hobby farmer but there is currently no option for the farmer looking to grow their business. For this reason many American dairy goat farmers have been forced to acquire their farming equipment either from Canada or European and Middle Eastern countries. Having local customer needs along with the growing popularity of dairy goat farming, our client desires to be able to produces commercial grade goat milking stanchions that will be suitable for a wide variety of farming types.

Deliverables
 Detailed engineering drawing package with manufacturing and installation instructions.  Scaled 3D model for classroom and snapshot presentations. 

Specifications
 The total system shall weigh no more than 600 lbs.   The goats must be able to self load in a single file line and self-sort into the pens without the opportunity of skipping any sections.   It must be possible to release all goats simultaneously such that they can exit their pens in less than 30 seconds.   The doors to each pen must close automatically after the goats are released.   The goats must not be able to steal food from adjacent food troughs.   The goats must not be able to escape.   There shall be no gaps in the flooring or walls where animal appendages could get stuck or pinched. </li>  The design shall be able to carry a static load of 1000 lbs per two goat sections. </li>  The height of the device will be optimal for reaching the goat’s udders </li>  The main device consists of the self-acting doors that divide the animals, the exit gate that also contains the feed holders, and all the bars that hold the goats in place. </li>  The Elevation Stand is the device that holds the main device a set distance off of the ground for farmers that plan on using the device as a standalone system. The elevation device must be sturdy and able to resist the elements if located outdoors. </li>  Given the amount of use indicated by the goat farmer our team met with, each goat stanchion will need to be opened and closed about 500 times a season (roughly a 7-month period). With this in mind, we believe that our system should be expected to last 90000 cycles for each stanchion, which allows for the different milking periods of other small dairy animals. </li>

=Early Design Considerations=

=2nd Design Iteration=

=Project Learning= After being assigned this project the team’s first goal was to become more familiar with dairy goats and dairy goat farming. Dairy goat farming is one of the fastest growing agricultural movements in the United States. Herds grew by 61% between 2007 and 2017 according to the Washington Post. The major difference with dairy goats from other dairy animals is their wide range of sizes. Ranging anywhere from 20-35 inches tall and between 80-140 lbs. This makes farming equipment more difficult as it needs to be adjustable to accommodate many different sizes. The majority of our questions were answer from a group trip down to Leadore, Idaho to meet with our client. After arriving in Leadore we were able to tour the Peterson Metal Products shop to get an inventory list of their machines and what manufacturing processes we could use in the stanchion design. From there we traveled up to Salmon, Idaho to meet with Randal and Carol Stoker, a dairy sheep farmer in the area and owners of Mountain Valley Farmstead. On the farmstead we got to observe a homemade stanchion design Randal had developed in order to milk his sheep. Tour of Mountain Valley Farmstead Sheep Dairy Farm: Milking Parlor: The milking parlor was in a barn and consisted of a 3 ft deep concrete pit with rows of stanchions on each side. The stanchions were constructed from steel pipe which was bolted to the concrete floor. The stanchions had a railed walkway leading to four pens. Holding Pens: Each pen was equipped with a wooden door covering its entrance and a feeding trough blocking the end. The doors overlapped one another so they could only be opened sequentially beginning with the furthest door. Feeding Troughs: Above the feeding troughs hung flexible tubes attached to feed dispensers. The dispensers were filled by a large pipe with an auger supplying feed from a grain bin located in the loft above the milking parlor. The feed troughs were mounted to a gate which could swing upward to release the sheep after milking. Design Considerations Based on Observations: Stand: Most customers are unlikely to have a pit to use for stanchions sitting at ground level; however, stands and ramps could easily be sold separately. This would allow customers to more easily adapt the system to fit their existing facilities. Feeding system: Manually filling feed troughs before each milking could be a major inconvenience for farmers working with a large herd of goats. An automatic feed dispensing system could be a desirable feature for many farmers. Many customers may not have a loft to place their feed storage above their milking parlor so we will consider alternative feeding mechanisms. Dividers: The farmer had problems with goats stealing food from one another. We will solve this problem by including dividers between feed troughs. Doors: The overlapping door system which is used in nearly all commercial milking stanchions is a simple and efficient way to ensure all pens are filled.

=Final Design=

=Prototyping= To analyze the manufacturing process and acquire design validation data a scaled prototype was made from the final drawing package. The prototype was scaled down to a 1/3 scale. Once the dxf files were scaled they were plasma cut on campus and the remainder of the materials scaled to 1/2 inch square tubing and expanded metal purchased in town. In an effort to complete the prototype in a timely manner some of the fixture methods were changed. many places that are bolted of clamped together in the full designed were welded together to secure the model. Once complete the prototype functions exactly as the full scale should. The doors open if pushed and close with gravity. The gates and hand lift function to raise the gates after milking. The ramps can move to different locations on the stand as designed. Lastly, the stalls can be removed from the stand as designed if the stand is not needed or ordered.

After completing the prototype we noticed a few design elements that needed changing. The stand was altered to remove a majority of the holes making it easier to manufacture and secure multiple stands together. It was also noticed that the front and back ramp slots needed adjusting to locate the ramp properly on these sides. Aside from these changes the prototype works exactly as the full scale was designed.

=Manufacturing Fixture= After the project drawing package was delivered and prototyping was completed, fixtures were designed to help the manufacturing of the numerous divider boxes. The fixture is made out of 1/4 steel so as the fixture gets years of use it will remain in tact and reliable. Tabs are placed in position to secure each side of the dividers in their proper orientation to one another. Push/Pull toggle clamps are placed on each side to secure sections to the location tabs.

=Electronic Gate Lift= An addition to the manual designs was an incorporation of a linear actuator to autonomously raise and lower the feed gates. This required a re-design of one of the linkage brackets and an additional bracket that would secure the back mount of the linear actuator to the stall.

=Validation=

 Design Validation Plan

=Team Members=

=Additional Documentation=

 Project Schedule

Product Requirements Document