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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Farmers in need of time

Author: Maarten Crivits (ILVO) - 13 December 2016

At the Hooibeekhoeve, the provincial extension and testing station for dairy farming in Geel (Belgium), local farmers met to discuss the relevance of implementing data from sensors to support their daily decisions. During the event, a lively discussion unfolded about the potential utility of a milking robot, the possibilities of doing more with data from farming software programs and the role of advisors. The 4D4F team took home some important lessons about labor efficiency and the organization of data management support.

SARA: to monitor or not to monitor?

Author: Dr. Maarten Crivits (ILVO) - 23 December 2016

Subacute ruminal acidosis (SARA) is a metabolic disorder that can become a serious economic problem in dairy herds. Dairy herds experiencing SARA will have a decreased efficiency of milk production as well as impaired cow health leading to involuntary culling. In practice, SARA is often overlooked and underestimated: neither the treatment costs nor the disease costs have been thoroughly investigated. Moreover, from the perspective of the farmer, SARA is very difficult to detect due to its lack of clear symptoms.

Precisely because the disease is so difficult to detect, precision livestock farming technology (PLF) can become an important tool to monitor SARA in dairy cows. But is monitoring also the most economical choice?

Final EU-PLF Conference

The final EU-PLF conference will be held on September 29th in Brussels (Belgium). The EU-PLF consortium and Animal Task Force will discuss the results and experiences of the 4 year EU-funded project. Registration for the conference is still open. For more information, click here. 

Precision Livestock Farming (PLF): the farmer's perspective

Project meeting @ Dairy Campus

The 2nd project meeting of 4D4F was held at the Dairy Campus in Leeuwarden (The Netherlands) on Monday, June 20th. The project partners came together in Leeuwarden to discuss the development of the community of practice.

A virtual platform will be constructed over the coming weeks to facilitate debate between dairy farmers, technology suppliers, advisors, veterinarians and researchers. People involved in the use and development of sensors for dairy cattle can register online now (here).

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