Fig. 39. Sweeping the gutter alleyway 

 scraping (below) required 0.48 



a group of older cows that were dif- 

 ficult to keep clean. He installed an 

 electric fence wire just above their 

 withers. This induced the cows to 

 back up to the edge of the gutter be- 

 fore eliminating urine or fecal ma- 

 terial. It resulted in a cleaner plat- 

 form and less need for hoeing ma- 

 terial to the gutter. The electric cur- 

 rent, of course, had to be turned off 

 during milking and while currying. 



(above) took 3.1 man minutes, while 

 man minutes. 



The operator thinks he can train 

 young cows so that they will tend to 

 keep the platforms clean after the 

 electric fence is discontinued. 



The labor in hoeing down can be 

 kept at a minimum by a trip around 

 the barn twice daily and occasional 

 attention to an individual cow. Trav- 

 el and time can be conserved by hav- 

 ing one hoe placed at the work center 

 and several other hoes available in 



44 



