Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Mechanization of Swedish agriculture started in the beginning of the twentieth century, to be able to have more animals without raising the number of employers. The horse business has not by far kept up with these cost savings solutions. Cleaning out stables and feeding horses are the most time-consuming tasks in horse stables today. The most common way to clean out the stable is still by shovel and wheelbarrow. The clean out process can easily be mechanized through semi- permanently beds with movable walls between the boxes so that the litter can be removed by a tractor or a loader. Other ways to simplify manure handling is to mechanize the transport of manure to the storage slab by installing rail-mounted carts or to have scrapers in culverts under the stable floor. A new system on the market for horse stables is Moving Floor™. The floor in the box is moved by compressed air whilst the horse is outdoors during the day, and both the moving of the floor and the filling of litter are controlled by a processor. The feeding process can be mechanized by automatic concentrate feeders or automatic rail-mounted carts, even though the latter still is unusual in horse stables. Loose housing is a way of keeping horses that meets their natural behaviour, and it becomes more common in Sweden. One type of combination of loose housing and mechanized cleaning and feeding is activating stable. The investment costs of these systems are paying off in 0,4 - 5,1 years in a stable with 30 horses. Common costs like processors, culverts and rails make it economically possible for large stables to have a higher level of mechanization.