What Is Precision Dairy Farming and Why Does It Matter Today More Than Ever?
Over the past decade, a technological revolution has been taking place in the global dairy industry that many of us are unaware of. This technological revolution is a movement toward precision farming.
Technologies like activity collars (aka Fitbits for cows) capture data on an individual cow’s health. Along with image technologies that monitor the external environment of the cow, there are also sensors that measure critical components of milk quality (that’s us!).
The result: higher profit margins for dairy farmers, healthier animals, and higher quality dairy products for you and your family. These technologies are slowly taking over the dairy industry and, more often, we see them in barns across the world. The industry calls them precision dairy technologies or “technologies to measure physiological, behavioral, and production indicators on individual animals.”
But what are the opportunities they represent?
Why Precision Dairy Farming?
Dairy farmers have always been at the forefront of innovation in the agriculture industry.
From integrating software technology in operations in the 1980s to quickly adopting robotic systems in the 2000s, dairy farmers are always looking for ways to increase their profits, lower their costs, and optimize animal welfare.
The goal of precision dairy farming is to improve management strategies, increase efficiency, and enhance farm performance by tracking the behaviour of each animal.
Data per animal helps farmers accurately examine whether animals deviate from their usual behaviours and prompt them to act through recommendations or alerts. As a result, diseases are caught early, reproductive performance is increased, and milk quality is monitored more accurately.
By allowing dairy producers to make more timely and informed decisions, precision technologies can increase profitability and efficiency. Animal-potential is maximized, their wellness is improved, and less medication and antibiotics are needed.
Given the current paradigm of the dairy industry of low milk prices and uncertainty in the market, this value becomes more critical than ever.
“The dairy industry continues to become more sophisticated and more information-driven...The productivity gains over the last three-quarters of the century are really a scientific marvel and the next horizon, I think, is in the use of data.”
What impact do they represent?
Precision dairy technologies represent a paradigm shift in how the dairy industry operates.
Historically, dairy farmers have relied on experience to identify unusual patterns of their animals. While these skills are important, they can be flawed.
Usually when behaviour from an unwell animal is detected, it's too late to intervene. Other signs that precede illness such as physiological responses (increase in heart rate for example) are not detectable to the human eye.
Precision dairy technologies change this by helping farmers act proactively and with accuracy.
What comes next?
The dairy industry is still in its infancy when it comes to precision dairy technology adoption. More needs to happen for greater adoption.
Factors associated with return on investment, total investment, and technology performance are key components of consideration for farmers when they are looking to purchase these technologies.
Farmers are more likely to purchase precision dairy technologies if they can integrate with current products, have access to robust internet, and are provided assistance and training to utilize these technologies.
“The biggest surprise is how much data goes unused. There’s a tremendous amount of data available to every dairy producer and oftentimes that data is underutilized...I think there’s still a lot of untapped potential in existing data sources. ”
The last point is key as without training on how to interpret data, information could be missed and the value of such technologies underutilized, leading to discouragement and abandonment.
There is still a long way to go. But precision dairy technologies certainly represent an exciting opportunity for the industry and for us and the quality food our families consume every day.