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Controlling Mastitis in Cows: Development of an Evaluation Methodology for Determining the Coverage Efficacy of
Can Tezel1,2,3, Gokhan Bayar1
1Mechanical Engineering Department, Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit University, Zonguldak, Turkey.
Background:
Automatic post-milking teat spraying systems are widely used in dairy farming to improve udder hygiene and reduce the risk of mastitis. However, these systems often fail to achieve homogeneous coverage of the outer teat surface due to limited adjustability in nozzle positions and the number of nozzles.
Objective:
This study aimed to develop a novel methodology to evaluate the homogeneity of spray coverage on the outer teat surface and to determine the coverage efficiency of different nozzle configurations used in automatic teat spraying systems.
Study Design:
Experimental and simulation-based study using a laboratory test setup and a 3D modelling framework.
Methods:
The proposed methodology integrates a geometry-based modelling structure, an image-processing-based evaluation system and a grid-algorithm-based assessment model. A simulation environment and an experimental setup were developed to evaluate the approach. Experiments were conducted using four life-sized rubber cow teats whose positions and orientations could be independently adjusted to simulate different teat and nozzle conditions. The developed model was also integrated into a 3D cow prototype. Spray coverage was evaluated for nozzle configurations commonly used in practice (one, two and four nozzles).
Results:
The results indicated that spray coverage increased with the number of nozzles. According to the image-processing-based algorithm, the coverage rates for one-, two- and four-nozzle configurations were 55.7%, 57.1% and 59.7%, respectively. Using the grid-based algorithm, the corresponding coverage values were 68.5%, 71.8% and 84.6%. The findings demonstrate that increasing the number of nozzles significantly improves the coverage performance of automatic teat spraying systems.
Main Limitations:
The study was conducted using rubber teat models under controlled experimental conditions, which may not fully represent the variability encountered in real dairy farm environments.
Conclusions:
The proposed methodology provides a systematic and quantitative framework for evaluating spray coverage and optimizing nozzle configurations in automatic teat spraying systems. The approach can support the design and improvement of more effective teat disinfection systems in dairy farming.
