Velos 2023.2 Dairy Farming

This Nedap Velos software version contains new and improved functionalities that provide new solutions, add valuable options to existing solutions and further increase the ease of use of Velos.

Nedap FarmControl

Identification

• Fixed a PPID issue where manually inserted animal numbers were removed when another animal was identified.

Traffic

• When creating a separation rule for separating animals based on a heat attention there is an option not to separate the animals that have already been handled (inseminated, seen, etc.). The report “To be separated” did however still show these animals. This issue has been fixed.

Nedap CowControl

Heat Detection and Health Monitoring

• The setting “Hide heat attentions for young stock from 8 weeks prior to the expected calving date till the expected calving date” has been modified. It will now also hide heat attentions for young stock 2 weeks after the expected calving date. This setting can be found in Settings > Heat detection – Attentions.

• Fixed an issue that caused young stock with a calendar heat event to be listed on the no heat attention list.

• If the “Voluntary waiting period” was set to e.g., 50 days after calving and the “No insemination” attention to 60 days after calving then the “No insemination” attention was generated after 50 days instead of 60 days. This has been fixed.

Cow Locating

• Fixed an issue where on Velos installations with more than one VPU, an animal's location was inconsistent when looking it up through the group page or animal page.

Nedap MilkingControl

• The SmartFlow cleaning process is now validated based on the SmartFloat position and temperature. A milk session duration should be at least 30 minutes and the cleaning should be done within 60 minutes after the last miking. A new dashboard widget now shows cleaning attentions in case issues were detected while cleaning.

  

  Possible attentions are:

  • No cleaning. This attention is generated when no cleaning process is detected on all SmartFlow devices in a milking parlor and is based on temperature rise after a milk session. If a new cleaning is started, the attention will be removed and if no new cleaning is detected after the next milking session, a new no cleaning attention will be created.The number of cleaning attentions indicates the number of milking parlors that have this attention.

  • Abnormal cleaning. This attention is generated if the SmartFloat of one specific SmartFlow does not stay at the bottom position during the cleaning process. If this is the case the SmartFlow may not be cleaned correctly and the SmartFlow should therefore be checked. If the next cleaning is normal, the attention is removed and when it is also abnormal, a new attention is created. If no new cleaning is detected after next milking session, no new abnormal cleaning attention will be created, but the current attention remains and a new no cleaning attention is created. The number of abnormal cleaning attentions indicates the number of SmartFlows that have this attention.

  Following the “Show attentions” link in the dashboard widget shows the parlour cleaning details:

  

  Attentions will be removed automatically when a correct cleaning is detected again, and they can also be removed manually by the user. 

• SmartFlow devices can now be used without InTouch devices. This means that milking parlors can use SmartFlow devices without replacing the existing milking control panels. Note: Nedap business partners need to integrate this into their platform to make this work. This feature is therefore only available for business partners that have done this integration. Start/stop measuring signal is provided by third parties/business partners by using the new SmartFlow API.

• Fixed the following issues:

  • On the parlor configuration page linking InTouch devices to multiple VPUs failed.

  • On the parlor feed station monitor page the column selector now shows the names of the columns. 

  • On the Parlor Monitor page a small amount was added to the milk yield every time the separation button on the Parlor Monitor page was pressed.

  • After refreshing the parlor monitor page, the animal numbers were shifted one place.

  • The toggle functionality of the separation button on the InTouch (SEP ON/SEP OFF) did not work correctly.

  • On the page Settings>Milking>SmartFlow Settings>tab Zero Point Test: when starting the zero-point test using the “Start all” button the page became unresponsive until the zero-point test was loaded for all SmartFlow devices. This has been fixed. The page now shows the progress and stays responsive during the zero-point test process.

  • In the report Milking>SmartFlow: when the report was exported as CSV or PDF file the name of the file was incorrect.

  • On the “Milking” tab of the animal overview page: conductivity value was not shown at all here when the “Text” tab of animal milkings overview showed non-zero values.

  • On the “Milkings” button on the “Milking” tab of an animal overview page, the column selector on the “Text” tab did not show the column names.

  • On the Milkings button on the “Milking” tab of an animal overview page, the “Chart” tab did not show a chart with milking yield if an animal had no calving event in its calendar.

General

• Improved the Velos setup wizard to better support the configuration of the installation in one of the two available modes: (1) Standalone or (2) Nedap Now.

  Nedap Now
  Nedap Now is the newly created online software platform that combines the reliability of Velos with the processing power and scalability of cloud computing. Data recorded by Velos can be processed by more advanced algorithms. Nedap Now offers online as well as offline functionality, stores more data over longer periods of time and combines insights from multiple farm locations. It provides the most accurate and comprehensive insight into the reproduction, health, behavior and performance of every cow, group and the entire herd. Presented through easy-to-use worklists and reports that can be tailored to specific peoples needs and accessed by advisors and specialists if desired. 
  
  Currently Nedap Now (mode) is not available for all partners yet. More information will follow when it is rolled out widely.

  Mode 1: The standalone mode is Velos like it has always been. All recorded data is processed locally.

  Mode 2: The Nedap Now mode is a new mode where the Velos installation works in combination with Nedap Now.

  Velos will act slightly different when in Nedap Now mode:

  • Basic animal data e.g., the animal number and its tag number are read only in Velos. This information is handled by the Nedap Now applications. Nedap Now will keep the Velos installation updated with this information automatically.

  • The Velos user interface will by default hide all screens and reports that show the results of the local heat and health algorithms as they are available in the Nedap Now applications. As a fall back these screens and reports will be shown again when the Velos installation cannot connect with Nedap Now.

  • Velos will no longer send email notifications for attentions that are generated in Nedap Now. These are e.g., calendar attentions and heat and health attentions. Velos will keep sending email notifications for milking and system related attentions.

• Fixed some issues in the data synchronization between Nedap Now and Velos.

  • Removing one animal in Nedap Now resulted in a full import of all data from Nedap Now to Velos.

  • Synchronization of animal data from Nedap Now to Velos failed if there were one or more “Tags not linked” present in Velos.

• Improved power channels by making them user configurable. A power channel is defined as a power supply with all V-Packs connected to it. In case high power consuming actuators like feeder motors are used on the V-Pack the power must be managed on the channel. Activating multiple feeder motors at the same time may need too much current, and this may cause the voltage of the power supply to drop. Power management has always been in place for the devices connected to the two CAN channels provided by the VPU. These channels automatically detect which V-Packs are connected to it. For V-Packs connected via ethernet, like the VP1801, the power management cannot work automatically as Velos is unable to detect which devices are connected to which power supply. This can now be configured manually by the service user.

  Devices not connected via CAN Vout1 or CAN Vout2 are “unassigned” by default:

  

  Users can add their own power channels by defining the power supply:

  

  This power channel is added to the list of available power channels. It is also possible to remove this channel, but the predefined CAN power channels cannot be removed:

  

  Users can add V-Packs to the power channels they have defined themselves:

  

• Fixed the following issues:

  • In rare occasions the VPU sometimes showed a ’B’ sign, indicating that the VPU is booting, when it was not booting at all. 

  • Local backup failed because the USB stick could not be formatted.

  • The dashboard page did not load correctly the first time after a Velos update.

  • On the V-Pack settings page, it now shows a neat message when selecting a VPU that is disconnected instead of showing an internal server error with an incomprehensible message.

• Improved German translations on the dashboard.

• Nedap constantly updates the software to prevent security vulnerabilities. In this version some 3rd party libraries have been updated because of this.

System requirements

Velos version

• An installation needs to run on version 2021.1 or newer to be able to update to this version. Make sure to update to version 2021.1 first before installing this version.

Taurus

• This version is compatible with Taurus 2020.2 (5.101.7.0) and Taurus 2023.1 (5.143.93.0).

Mobile device versions:

• iOS 14 or later

• Android 5.0 or later

Supported browsers:

• Chrome

• Edge