A detecting method for dairy cattle comprises the steps of: automatically measuring lying and standing times for a milking animal by a sensor; automatically comparing the measured lying and standing times for said milking animal with reference values of lying and standing times; and automatically establishing whether said milking animal is in heat or not based on said comparison. , monitoring transactions and transmitting data among systems. The mould path device and the return conveyor form units separated from one another, with a portal robot fixedly anchored to a base plate being provided as the return conveyor and the mould path unit being a mobile unit travellable on the base plate. The third radius R3 is different from the fourth radius R4 and the second barbs and the first barbs are arranged such that the second barbs fall into spaces between the first barbs when the first portion and the second portion are mated.