23 Oct 2005
Tux Can Even Milk Cows!

Here's a rarity: a post in 'Agriculture' from Slashdot! Some folks, reading this blog, might come to the conclusion that I'm generally opposed to using technology in farming: this is not so! I'm generally opposed to using inappropriate technology, and not just in ag. Maybe it's the engineering purist in me, but ill-fitting technology seems to have become a panacea for all of our ills. Seeing this tends to create a "Luddite" effect, which is a shame, because of devices like this.

This actually seems like it would be both better for the animals and better for the farmer - a true win-win situation.

If you're a cow, you want to get milked when you want to get milked. And if you were a dairy farmer, you want to make your cow happy. So what do you do? Set up a machine that gives the cow control of its milking schedule. Oh yeah, of course, it runs on Linux. It identifies the cow, then finds the udders, milks the cow, cleans it's undercarriage, and lets it go.

(link) [Slashdot]

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