Dairy farms are equipped with numerous electrical appliances that pose a risk of 'yard currents'. Stray current occurs when current deviates from the desired one electrical circuit, e.g. due to insufficient insulation or grounding. This can cause a lot of inconvenience with the cows. Depending on the location of the problem, the cows get nervous, stomp, they avoid certain places in the stable, drink or eat less, they do not let the milk shoot enough and they are not completely milked out. The latter can indirectly lead to mastitis lead. In severe cases, the cows even refuse to go to the milking parlor or milking robot to go. This leads to a sharp decrease in milk production, animal welfare and the work efficiency of the company. Dairy farmers sometimes search for years for the causes of these problems.

Knowledge about recognizing, measuring and solving stray current is still limited and shredded. This operational group wants to detect and resolve stray current more quickly and the draw attention to the correct earthing and insulation of electrical components in the milking parlor. On the one hand, the existing protocol for measuring stray current in the evaluated and validated in practice. On the other hand, the knowledge about stray current in Flanders bundled and further disseminated in the sector and practical training courses are organized for milking machine technicians, so that livestock farmers are helped faster with any problems could be. The operational group's ultimate goal is to accelerate stray current detect and solve and that in the long term even more attention will be paid to a correct one earthing and insulation of electrical components in the milking parlor.

Funding acknowledgement : Europees Landbouwfonds voor Plattelandsontwikkeling  - Europa investeert in zijn platteland

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