Abstract. The aim of this study was to analyze the behavioral responses of milked cows and throughput performance of a herringbone milking parlor of capacity 2x10. For this purpose, 120 cows, of which about 100 milked, housed in an existing undivided compost bedded-pack barn (manure with minimum straw tilled on a daily basis), were investigated. Cows were milked three times per day in a 30-degree 2 x 10 herringbone parlor. A real-time monitoring system was designed, developed and installed to obtain the required information. A steady trend of difference between entrance and exit routines in cows from the left and right platform of the milking parlor was found. The most likely reason is the difference in illumination between the two milking platforms, and also direction of the exit traffic. Groups of cows who turned at 180˚ had longer exit time, irrespective of the shorter distance covered. Milking duration within the range of the three milkings showed a clearly defined rate. Morning milking was of the shortest duration, although the one-time absolute milk yield is the highest in the morning. The most likely explanation for it is the higher oxytocin release in the early hours of the day as a result of the reduced impact of the surrounding stress factor. Often cows from the left platform would come into contact with those from the right platform and delay movement to the selection gate. Therefore, an optically impenetrable barrier would be required to be installed on the gate.Keywords: herringbone milking parlors, cow traffic, exit-entrance areas, selection gate (s), cow behavior, planning and design AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 9, No 2, pp , 2017 DOI: 10.15547/ast.2017.021 -123 IntroductionIn connection with the evaluation of the common behaviors of cows in the dairy sector several studies have been carried out in Bulgarian farms (Varlyakov et al., 2007(Varlyakov et al., , 2010a(Varlyakov et al., , 2010b(Varlyakov et al., , 2011. The Design and construction of milking parlors and centers is a authors found a sustainable trend for the way motion sequence of complex process affected by many factors such as existing entry, as well as the general behavior of the animals in the milking engineering infrastructure, alternative cow traffic, management of room. The obtained results of the authors are tied entirely indicators milking and physiology of the herd (William, 2000). Spasov et al.for the general welfare of cows. For better organization of cow (1990) found that differences in cow milking times (3 to 10 min) did movement, Smith et al. (1996) proposed design and construction of not significantly affect the general course of milking. He reported that a solid barrier between entrance/exit lanes and milking parlor. In duration of the entire milking period depended mostly on the cows order to improve the overall management of the herd, many dairy and the time taken for entry and exit of milking stalls. A number of farms have installed a selection door at the exit of the milking room to researchers (Bar...

The relationship between the milking process phases and the artificial teat reaction have been studied. Milking units with a conventional and tri-circle shape of the pulsation chamber were used. The conclusions are related to the reaction of the teat support and the changes of the time components in the pulsogram. The filling of the milking chamber with an artificial teat reduces the absolute duration of the transitional phases "a" and "c" and prolongs the actual phases "b" and "d" in all the experimental rates.

Abstract. Milking machines equipped with new and used milking liners with a round cross section were studied. The used milking membranes were operated for 3 months on a farm for rearing 60 cows (Holstein cattle) with double milking per day. The experiment involved recording the standard pulsation phases “a”, “b”, “c” and “d” (in absolute units) in the frequency range from 1 Hz to 2.5 Hz, in a vacuum mode of 40 kPa and 50 kPa and at a pulsation ratio of 50/50%. It was found that the transients (phase “a” and phase “c”) are faster and the established phases (phase “b” and phase “d”) are longer in milking units equipped with used milking liners. The conclusions are related to the service life of the milking liners.

In 2014-2015 installations for hot water yield from renewable energy sources were built and tested in three dairy farms in Bulgaria. These replace the traditionally used electricity on farms with the aim of decarbonising the energy production. The newly built installations contain three modules for heat yield-from recuperation of the heat from the milked milk, from the solar energy and from wood pellets. In the course of one year the energy obtained from the renewable sources has been measured and assessed. The present article assesses the ecological benefits of the separate renewable sources which are used to reduce СО emissions, the main greenhouse gas. For this purpose, the method of environmental life cycle analysis (LCA) and assessment of heat/hot water 2 generating systems was used. Coefficients for calculating the primary energy of the saved or replaced energy, as well as their respective carbon ratios, specific for Bulgaria, were used. The results obtained are related to identifying the specific quantities of saved CO emissions from the renewable sources used on the 2 experimental farms. It has been found that about 52-57% of CO savings are due to the pellets used, 34-42% to the solar heat collectors and about 9% to the 2 recuperated heat from the produced milk.

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