Data Driven Dairy Decision For Farmers (4D4F) aims at developing a network for dairy farmers, dairy technology suppliers, data companies, dairy advisors, veterinarians and researchers to improve the decision making on dairy farms based on data generated by sensors.

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New technologies for better claw health

Author: Kristine Piccart & Anneleen De Visscher (ILVO) - Date: January 23, 2018

Lameness and claw lesions in dairy cattle have far-reaching consequences, in terms of farm economics and animal welfare. It has been estimated that lameness costs no less than €53 per cow per year. That’s a loss of more than € 3.400 per year on an average dairy farm with 65 cows. Furthermore, accurate detection and timely treatment of lame cows is still a serious bottleneck in practice.

4D4F event: Data for better yields

Author: Jef Aernouts (Farmdesk) - Date: January 17, 2019

This 4D4F event, held on December 12, was the last session for dairy cattle farmers organized by Wim Govaerts & CO and ILVO. In previous sessions, the focus was mostly on sensors. In this session, Flemish farmers were brought together to discuss the use of the most essential data of every dairy farm: milk data.

Reaping all the benefits from integrating technology

Author: Ben Thompson (IfA) - Date: January 14, 2019

Hopes Ash Farm is a mixed farm situated in Herefordshire, Midlands, England. The farm was Farmers Weekly mixed farm of the year 2016 and is owned and managed by Robert Davies and his family. Alongside the dairy herd, the farm also runs a beef, sheep, arable, turkey and cider apple enterprise. As part of the multi-enterprise farm, the Davies family have a dairy herd of 126 Holstein/Friesian cows, milked through 2 Lely Astronaut A3 Robots. They are calving all year round and rearing their own replacements.

Cow positioning

Author: Innovation for Agirculture (IfA) - Date: January 10, 2018

Innovation for Agriculture visited dairy farms in Sweden and Holland to see sensor technologies in practice. The farmers in this video introduce the Nedap Cow Positioning technology - a technology that locates individual cows via GPS, and discuss the benefits it has brought to their farms, including; ease of locating cows that need to be milked, reduced time locating cows for treatments and artificial insemination.

 

Short stories from Eurotier (part 3)

Author: Annica Hansson (VXA) - Date: January 9, 2019

Allflex presents cow monitoring solution at Eurotier 2018

The Cow monitoring solution of Allflex includes reproduction, health, nutrition and wellbeing. Allflex describes it as “the next generation for cow monitoring”, in which they offer support for data driven decision making. Their Heattime Pro+ is PC-based. Allflex offers flexible application level plans, from basic fertility reports to more advanced group behavior graphs and young stock monitoring.

Sensor technology: blessing or curse for the animal?

Author: Maarten Crivits and Kristine Piccart (ILVO) - Date: January 4, 2019

It is remarkable to notice that the average perception of the relationship between animal welfare and technological progress is generally negative. People further away from the dairy sector are sceptical about ongoing scale enlargement and fear that the modern farm with its automatisation and sensors will lead to less and less care for the animal. The question arises: is this assumption correct? Although there are limits to what technology can do, modern sensor technologies can be precisely applied to more accurately monitor the individual animal and safeguard its health.

 

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