11 minute read
Alltech One conference in the US
from Dairy Farmer October 2022
by AgriHQ
The Alltech ONE conference held in Kentucky in the US earlier this year covered everything from dairying to agribusiness, agritech, sustainability, climate change and more. Samantha Tennent reports on some of the key insights shared at the event.
Dairy gone digital
From cow cams to automated calf feeding, technology for use on dairy farms has grown increasingly sophisticated.
Our daily lives have been transformed by technology, including through our smartphones, smart cars and smart homes. The dairy industry is no exception, with innovative technologies changing the way we milk cows and track data. Dr Marcia Endres, a professor at the University of Minnesota, has been monitoring technology in the dairy industry and how it might be influencing sustainability.
“Nearly everyone has a smartphone now but 15 years ago when the first iPhone was released, it was a different story. We can no longer live without gadgets,” Endres said at Alltech’s international conference, ONE, held in Kentucky earlier this year.
“And for the cow, we are able to know what is happening to her now more than ever.”
Endres spoke about the trends and impacts of dairy technology and sustainability. She highlighted the value in having proactive information, like rumination data, to flag animals to farmers so they can check them and mitigate any issues that could be brewing.
“Rumination is a good way to know if a cow is feeling good. When rumination changes it might be because an animal is sick, so the farmer now has a helpful tool and they can give her whatever she needs so she doesn’t get severely ill and doesn’t die, which is very important for sustainability,” Endres said.
“A dead cow isn’t very productive.”
She talked of sustainability and its direct relation to economics but she also highlighted how the health of an animal is important for environmental sustainability too, as healthy animals are more efficient. And it also relates to animal welfare and social sustainability.
“We’re seeing more technology beyond wearables on dairy farms now too, such as cameras being installed in barns to monitor cow behaviour, which tells us if she’s resting enough and we know if she’s eating, drinking and so on,” Endres said.
And the same technology can monitor the feed bunker and access to feed, which has a direct relation to feed
Collars fitted around cows’ necks give farmers a range of information that can help them with animal health, calving and mating. University of Minnesota Professor Marcia Endres has been monitoring technology in the dairy industry and how it might be influencing sustainability.
waste, something Endres stressed as a very important aspect of sustainability. Improving access to feed with automation technology reduces feed waste on farms and improves sustainability. And innovations such as feed pushers are helping improve access to feed in housed systems.
“In one study looking at the connection between feed wastage and productivity on robotic farms there were 11 pounds [4.9kg] of milk difference between farms that had feed pushers and farms that didn’t,” Endres said.
“And on conventional farms, we’re seeing a 2-3 pound [0.9kg] increase just because cows have better access to feed.
“A more productive cow is a more efficient cow, which is important for sustainability.”
Extensive automation options are available for farms now too, with systems like automated total mixed ration feeding also helping reduce feed wastage by efficiently feeding multiple times throughout the day.
And automated milk feeders for calves allow calves to feed in a more natural manner and drink more milk than they would in a traditional twice-a-day system, which improves their health and welfare and allows
A variety of technology is used on dairy farms, including cameras in barns to monitor cow behaviour such as resting, eating and drinking. Adoption of technology has grown substantially on dairy farms in the past 10 years.
Marcia Endres
a more gradual weaning process.
Automation has also reached fans, with smart sensors measuring temperature and humidity. Some are even connected to sensors on the cows so if some show changes in behaviour, indicating heat stress, the fans will turn on.
But she explained that technology is a partnership with humans. The equipment still need maintenance and cows still need managing.
“Automation doesn’t remove labour requirements altogether; it changes the labour,” Endres said.
“Humans still need to pay attention and make sure everything is calibrated and working properly, but labour is one of the biggest challenges of the dairy industry and technology is relieving some of the pressure.
“Because we can monitor our cows better, we can actually get the work done which is important as it’s getting harder to find employees.”
There has been a huge increase in robotic milking across the United States and Endres believes that relates to labour as larger dairies are struggling to find people who want to milk cows, and wages are increasing.
She spoke about the extensive research into robotic milking, both voluntary milking systems where cows go to a box by themselves to be milked as well as completely automated rotary parlours. She highlighted advantages such as a consistent routine, no training requirements and how reliable a robot is because it comes to work every day, which is important for sustainability.
“Automation for various tasks on farms and technologies that can monitor cows and calves are definitely helping our dairies to be even more sustainable and more viable into the future.
“Adoption of technology has grown substantially in the past 10 years. Not all farms will have it but it will continue to grow into the future.” n
By Samantha Tennent
Share the story
Farmers feed the global population but need to tell their story better so consumers understand how the food they eat is produced.
Farmers work day in, day out to put food on consumers’ tables, but it is work that is mostly done behind the farmgate. And these days more and more people are removed from farming and have little or no knowledge of where their food actually comes from or how it is produced.
And, despite the appetite of the general public for dairy, there is a clear struggle to tell the agricultural story without it being drowned out by the vocal minorities who decry farmers on social media. It is a global problem and a clear message at the 2022 ONE event, hosted by Alltech in Kentucky.
Speakers on a panel shared their views on the issue and related simple success stories.
“Initiatives like the open farm Sunday in the UK, where farms open to the public, they are so popular the farmers can’t deal with the crowds of people who want to come and learn more about their story,” said Neil Keane, commercial director for the Alltech rumen function platform.
“We need to be mindful that, unfortunately, a lot of countries are two, three generations removed from primary production so there are a lot of people don’t know what actually happens on a farm,” he said.
“We do have an audience who want to learn more, but sometimes we’re living in our own bubbles and we think they don’t want to know this story, that it’s not of interest, but we see repeatedly when media initiatives are undertaken that there is a huge appetite for that.”
Keane also spoke about finding a middle ground and being careful in managing the narrative from the dairy sector.
“If we’re not careful it could be a black swan moment for our industry,” Keane said.
“Rather than having a polarised industry with strong opinions about how to farm, things like whether organic is the way or large scale or smaller scale dairy, we need to find the middle ground where we’re communicating the right messages out to the people who buy our products.”
Philip Halhead, a farmer from the United Kingdom, shared an example of a social media figure who has found a way to share his farming story through his Instagram page. The farmer, Tom Pemberton, showcases real-life issues and problems on the farm and has just released a book.
A panel of farmers at the ONE conference in Kentucky discussed how farmers around the world can tell their stories better in order to connect with consumers.
Food produced by the dairy industry is done behind the farmgate and with more and more people having little knowledge of where their food comes from, the industry needs better voices to convey their story.
“He hasn’t got the most pretty farm or the best agricultural story but he’s found his voice and he’s found a voice for every one of us,” Halhead said.
“That’s what we need. It’s not every farmer, and it’s not every agriculturalist that can tell the story so let’s find the people who can and engage right through the supply chain, at higher levels in government and with the people who can tell that sustainability piece right down to children of four or five and six, who literally want to be a farmer. That’s an exciting opportunity.” n
Philip Halhead
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Challenges and potential
By Samantha Tennent
Data collection on farms is outpacing efforts to glean insights from all the numbers gathered, the ONE conference in Kentucky heard.
More and more data is available for farmers but there is a disconnect between the amount of data and the insights into what that data is showing. There is an opportunity for the sector to move away from just collecting data to layering data points with insights to ensure farmers are getting the full value of their information.
Data was one of the topics discussed during a panel on sustainability at the Alltech
ONE conference in Kentucky earlier this year. The panel highlighted the abundance of data available on farms but the challenges around its use and whether farms are seeing or feeling the value.
Luke Miller, a dairy technical support specialist at Alltech, shared results from a question posed to a group of farmers about whether they saw enough value in the wearable technology on their herds to validate the cost.
“About 60% of respondents agreed they could see and feel the value from the technology that they were paying for themselves,” Miller said.
“The other 40% agreed they were valuable but unsure if the value warranted the price tag.”
The panel speakers promoted the value of benchmarking for any of these types of technology. Showing data from other farms and what can be done really drives other farmers to figure out what they can get out of their technology. It plays on curiosity and the competitive urge.
But they talked about how the amount of data collection is more than most farms are prepared to deal with on a daily basis.
“Farmers choose to select things that they’re going to do very well, like mating, rumination, something they’re going to focus on and get value out of.
“Businesses revolve around the interpretation of data, what can we see happening on the farm, but this is where benchmarking is really powerful.”
Building on data and the sustainability story, another trend the panel discussed was social acceptance and consumers.
They highlighted a gap that there are missed opportunities through the young consumer and that dairy needs to be made popular again.
“There are lots of people who never drink milk in school and they’re never going to drink milk,” Miller said.
“Education isn’t just about what you are told, it’s learning through experiences and connecting the understanding.” n
Alltech dairy technical support specialist Luke Miller spoke at the ONE conference in Kentucky in the US, saying businesses revolve around the interpretation of data available on farms.
