Dairy farmers know extra about dairy cows nowadays than generations prior to them. Why? The adoption of technologies on farms is a principal cause.

Most farmers use information from revolutionary technologies to recognize the biology behind their dairy herds to make superior choices and come to be extra effective.
 
“With information, we are understanding that our cows are altering more than time and are enhancing their production, so farmers can not use information from ten years ago to make choices nowadays for the reason that we had various animals back then along with various technologies and nutrition,” says Veridiana Daley, Purina Mills senior researcher of adult dairy cows.
 
According to a current Association of Gear Producers report, advancing revolutionary technologies with dairy cow genetics and automated management systems on farms are the most considerable contributing aspects in decreasing the dairy industry’s carbon footprint, equivalent to taking four million automobiles off the road.
 
The report also discovered that today’s dairy herd produces 4 occasions as a lot as the international typical, with 16 million fewer cows. In addition, farmers’ adoption of technologies has saved adequate water to provide New York City for two years.
 
“Dairy farming can be complicated. Farmers are beneath a lot of anxiety, time crunches, and tight profit margins. The aim of working with technologies is to assistance farmers make superior choices, come across the bottlenecks of their operation, and be extra lucrative at the finish of the day,” says Alex Tebbe, a dairy technical specialist with Purina. 

 The creation of a higher-grade dairy cow 

Genomic testing and genetic choice for desirable traits such as milk yield have helped farmers generate extra productive dairy cows. 
 
Most dairies are testing heifer calves to see which ones will genetically make appropriate replacements in their herd. The tests show the genetic possible of milk production, says David Erf, senior veterinarian of dairy technical solutions with Zoetis. 
 
“When we genomic test calves, it can predict their future,” says Erf. “The aim is to come across which animals will be extra lucrative for dairies.”
 
Genetic testing and choice let farmers to lessen the quantity of cows that are not expense-helpful. 
 
“Testing makes it possible for us to genetically come across extra of these difficulty-absolutely free cows that are very good at production, very good at reproduction, and in very good overall health for the reason that a cow that can excel in these 3 locations, she’s going to be a lucrative cow for any farm,” Erf says. 

 
Farmers have extra effective use of time and sources

Right now, the most substantial use of technologies on dairy farms is a robotic milking program, which has revolutionized the milking parlor. 
 
A robotic milking program can bring extra flexibility to dairy farmers and let them to concentrate on other tasks, such as crop operate, for the reason that they are no longer tied to a cow, says Suzanne Meck, chief operations officer of AMS Galaxy USA, a provider of precision dairy farming gear.  
 
In a robotic milking program, a sensor detects the cows present and automatically cleans the cows’ teats prior to and immediately after attaching the milker. In addition, the program will gather information from a cow’s collar – which is a lot like a Fitbit device for humans — to track her milking time, pounds of milk developed, and rumination. 
 
“Cows can milk themselves about the clock. So perhaps you do not have to be concerned about having up at the crack of dawn the subsequent morning to begin chores,” says Meck.

In most situations, a robotic or automatic milking program can also imply that cows invest extra time in the barn. According to Meck, that can make it difficult for farmers to get into barns to clean out pens and deliver fresh bedding.  
 
Nevertheless, there are automated cleaning systems such as a flush program, scrapers, and robotic manure collectors that drag by way of the barn and take manure to a deposit region, says Meck. 
 
“Automated gear does a very good job for the reason that it is operating about the clock,” she adds. 
 
Most manure management systems also have water-saving processes and water use tracking capabilities to assistance farmers make superior choices with water sources. 
 
Farms are also updating to automated bedding systems, which assistance lessen bedding waste by placing out little qualities all through the day. In addition, automated bedding improves cow overall health and comfort, says Meck. 
 
“This form of automation makes it possible for the farmer to bed their cows 3 to 4 occasions a day, as opposed to as soon as or twice a week the manual way,” adds Meck. “The cows also like getting that fresh bedding regularly.”

Making use of information from technologies to superior management decisions 

Right now, a single cow can generate extra than two billion information points more than her lifetime. According to Daley, most dairy farms are gathering physical information points from a variety of computer software or monitoring technologies that gather extra than a hundred kinds of info.
 
Farms at a extra basic level with herds that only do Dairy Herd Improvement (DHI) tests as soon as a month are nonetheless gathering 5 to ten information points on their cows month-to-month, adds Tebbe. 
 
Nevertheless, measuring and comparing information to come across bottlenecks on a farm can be complicated when there is no straightforward way to integrate the information from the a variety of technologies on a farm. Tebbe says that is exactly where Addie, a Purina dairy record evaluation plan, comes in. It collects information from all the management computer software technologies becoming applied on the farm and creates a report with actionable insights producers can use to raise financial possible.

“Farms that have embraced technologies can have 4 or six various computer software systems collecting all their information. In the way Purina has constructed Addie, the program integrates information from these computer software systems, in an straightforward-to recognize kind, permitting us begin to recognize the entire image of the farm,” says Tebbe. 
 
“Addie is a tool or technologies that is all about the cows,” adds Daley. 

In working with the collected information, farmers appear for techniques to be extra effective with their sources, such as developing extra milk production with significantly less feed or detecting illness earlier in cows prior to it impacts their properly-becoming.
 
“Farmers are curious men and women. They often want to know extra, and they ask fantastic inquiries, so we can take their inquiries and transform their information to get the answers they require to succeed,” adds Tebbe.