Advancing Dairy Technology

Recently during a visit to a BJs Wholesale Club, a robot was perusing the aisle taking inventory. According to BJ’s they want a more in-depth understanding of individual store operating conditions. The Simbe will travel the entirety of the store several times a day sending data via the cloud that in turn uses AI technology to guide store employees regarding activities such as shelf restocking.

 source: BJ’s to roll out inventory robots chainwide | Grocery Dive

Fast Serve Restaurant establishments are increasingly relying on technology to manage orders within their individual restaurants using self-serve order stations and prototype robotic order delivery systems within individual restaurants.

Row Crop Farmers have been using technology for planting and harvesting monitoring and managing things like seed placement when planting. Additionally, GPS technology analyzing and managing what product is needed in what amount on what acre of land.

Dairy farming is also transitioning all aspects of its management needs. During the 1990's electronic milk meters became a popular purchase for dairy farmers across the world. That technology brought electronic identification and sort gates. For farms over the last 30 years that have not invested in milk meters, many still took an intermediary step by utilizing automatic takeoff units. Several thousand milk meters for new and remodeled barns are still being purchased annually.

Today, the dairy farm industry is investing in electronic heat detection, rumination plus eating monitoring via neck collars, ear tags, or boluses; some of which track animal location, body temperature and more. And innovation keeps marching forward with things like feed intake monitoring. We see herd management software development from an ever-increasing number of companies. What was once unlikely initiatives are becoming more prevalent. Recently John Deere and DeLaval announced a joint initiative John Deere and Delaval and companies such as Rabo AgriFinance,AgriWebb Enter Joint Agreement are entering into crop and livestock software management to tie software systems together on the farm level.

As dairy farm technology continues to develop at an increasingly fast pace related to individual cow management, group management, parlor management, feed management and more, this creates opportunity for manufacturers, dealers and dairymen. While each manufacturer has its unique advantages, and their management tools within their herd management software are generally comprehensive, there are still many areas that dairy farmers need support and training to recognize the full potential of the technology and software they have purchased.

For dairy farmers to trust this technology (regardless of the brand) is key to their success with their investment. Training creates understanding, and understanding along with regimented use will bring about trust. When this occurs the capabilities of the herd management system can help to create healthier cows and overall farm profitability.

Consumers will also be a beneficiary of this technology; healthy cows have a better possibility to produce high quality milk, resulting in high quality consumer products.

If you have any questions regarding the use of technology and herd management software on dairy farms, please feel free to connect with us.

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