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PRECISION DAIRY FARMING: POTENTIALS, PITFALLS, AND CRYSTAL BALL GAZING

PRECISION DAIRY FARMING: POTENTIALS, PITFALLS, AND CRYSTAL BALL GAZING. Jeffrey Bewley, PhD, PAS 2012 OABP Fall Continuing Education Meeting. Where I Come From. Kentucky Dairy Industry. 85,000 dairy cows across 810 dairy farms. Technological Marvels.

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PRECISION DAIRY FARMING: POTENTIALS, PITFALLS, AND CRYSTAL BALL GAZING

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  1. PRECISION DAIRY FARMING: POTENTIALS, PITFALLS, AND CRYSTAL BALL GAZING Jeffrey Bewley, PhD, PAS 2012 OABP Fall Continuing Education Meeting

  2. Where I Come From

  3. Kentucky Dairy Industry 85,000 dairy cows across 810 dairy farms

  4. Technological Marvels • Tremendous technological progress in dairy farming (i.e. genetics, nutrition, reproduction, disease control, cow comfort) • Modern dairy farms have been described as “technological marvels” (Philpot, 2003) • The next “technological marvel” in the dairy industry may be in Precision Dairy Farming

  5. Changing Dairy Landscape • Fewer, larger dairy operations • Narrow profit margins • Increased feed and labor costs • Cows are managed by fewer skilled workers

  6. Consumer Focus • Continuous quality assurance • “Natural” or “organic” foods • Greenhouse gas reductions • Zoonotic disease transmission • Reducing the use of medical treatments • Increased emphasis on animal well-being

  7. Information Era • Unlimited on-farm data storage • Faster computers allow for more sophisticated on-farm data mining • Technologies adopted in larger industries have applications in smaller industries

  8. Cow Challenges • Finding cows in heat • Finding and treating lame cows • Finding and treating cows with mastitis • Catching sick cows in early lactation • Understanding nutritional status of cows • Feed intake • Body condition (fat or thin) • Rumen health (pH/rumination time)

  9. Fatness or Thinness Rumination/pH Temperature Areas to Monitor a Dairy Cow Manure and Urine Feed intake Methane emissions Milk content Respiration Heart rate Mastitis Chewing activity Animal position/location Lying/ standing behavior Mobility Hoof Health

  10. Can technologies provide us the answers we’ve been looking for?

  11. Precision Dairy Farming • Using technologies to measure physiological, behavioral, and production indicators • Supplement the observational activities of skilled herdspersons • Focus on health and performance at the cow level

  12. Precision Dairy Farming • Make more timely and informed decisions • Minimize medication (namely antibiotics) through preventive health • Optimize economic, social, and environmental farm performance

  13. Precision Dairy Farming Benefits • Improved animal health and well-being • Increased efficiency • Reduced costs • Improved product quality • Minimized adverse environmental impacts • Risk analysis and risk management • More objective (less observer bias and influence)

  14. UK Herdsman Office

  15. Ideal PDF Technology • Explains an underlying biological process • Can be translated to a meaningful action • Low-cost • Flexible, robust, reliable • Information readily available to farmer • Farmer involved as a co-developer at all stages of development • Commercial demonstrations • Continuous improvement and feedback loops

  16. Mastitis Detection • Exciting Precision Dairy Farming applications • May increase likelihood of bacteriological cure • May reduce duration of pain associated with mastitis (animal well-being) • May reduce the likelihood of transmission of mastitis between cows • May prevent the infection from becoming chronic • Potential to separate abnormal milk automatically Brandt et al., 2010; Hogeveen et al., 2011

  17. Mastitis Detection Challenges • Meeting sensitivity (80%) and specificity (99%) goals (Rasmussen, 2004) • Calibration across time • Automatic diversion or alert? • Recommended action when an alert occurs with no clinical signs • Multivariate systems provide best results • Costs (both fixed and variable)

  18. Electrical Conductivity • Ion concentration of milk changes, increasing electrical conductivity • Inexpensive and simple equipment • Wide range of sensitivity and specificity reported • Affected by sample time, milk viscosity, temperature, and sensor calibration • Results improve with quarter level sensors • Improved results with recent algorithms • Most useful when combined with other metrics Brandt et al., 2010; Hogeveen et al., 2011

  19. Milk Color • Color variation (red, blue, and green) sensors in some automatic milking systems • Reddish color indicates blood (Ordolff, 2003) • Clinical mastitis may change color patterns for three colors (red, green and blue) • Specificity may be limited www.lely.com

  20. Temperature • Not all cases of mastitis result in a temperature response • Best location to collect temperature? • Noise from other physiological impacts

  21. Thermography • May be limited because not all cases of mastitis result in a temperature response • Difficulties in collecting images Before Infection After Infection Hovinen et al., 2008; Schutz, 2009

  22. Automated CMT or WMT • CellSense (New Zealand) • Correlation with Fossomatic SCC 0.76 (Kamphuis et al., 2008) • Using fuzzy logic, success rates (22 to 32%) and false alerts (1.2 to 2.1 per 1000 milkings), when combined with EC were reasonable (Kamphuis et al., 2008) • Costs?

  23. SCC value > 2,000,000 800,000 — 2,000,000 400,000 — 800,000 200,000 — 400,000 < 200,000 Works like a traffic light

  24. Mastiline • Uses ATP luminescence as an indicator of the number of somatic cells • Consists of 2 components • In-line sampling and detection system, designed for easy connection to the milk hose below the milking claw • Cassette containing the reagents for measuring cell counts

  25. Spectroscopy • Visible, near-infrared, mid-infrared, or radio frequency • Indirect identification through changes in milk composition • AfiLab uses near infrared • Fat, protein, lactose, SCC, and MUN • May be more useful for detecting high SCC cows than quantifying actual SCC

  26. Biosensors and Chemical Sensors • Biological components (enzymes, antibodies, or microorganism) • Enzyme, L-Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), is released because of the immune response and changes in cellular membrane chemistry • Chemical sensors: changes in chloride, potassium, and sodium ions, volatile metabolites resulting from mastitis, haptoglobin, and hemoglobin (Hogeveen, 2011) Brandt et al., 2010; Hogeveen et al., 2011

  27. Milk measurements • Progesterone • Heat detection • Pregnancy detection • LDH enzyme • Early mastitis detection • BHBA • Indicator of subclinical ketosis • Urea • Protein status

  28. 4Sight-Fionn Technologies • Northern Ireland • Photosensitive optic beams across barns • Software recognizes cows • ID’s when cows cross beams

  29. Estrus Detection • Efforts in the US have increased dramatically in the last 2 years • Producer experiences are positive • Changing the way we breed cows • Only catches cows in heat • Real economic impact SCR HR Tag/AI24 GEA Rescounter II DairyMaster MooMonitor/SelectDetect AFI Pedometer + BouMatic HeatSeeker II Legend

  30. SCR HR Tag • Measures rumination time • Time between cud boluses • Monitor metabolic status

  31. Rumen pH • Illness • Feeding/drinking behavior • Acidosis

  32. Vel’Phone Calving Detection

  33. CowManagerSensoor • Temperature • Activity • Rumination • Feeding Time

  34. Alanya Animal Health • Behavioral changes • Temperature • Lying/Standing Time • Grazing Time • Lameness • Estrus Detection (multiple metrics) • Locomotion Scoring

  35. RumiWatch • Rumination, Drinking, Eating Behavior • Lying, Standing, Steps

  36. Greenfeed measures methane (CH4) • Select for cows that are more environmentally friendly • Monitor impacts of farm changes (rations) on greenhouse gas emissions

  37. StepMetrix • Lameness detection • BouMatic

  38. Real Time Location Systems • Using Real Time Location System (RTLS) to track location of cows (similar to GPS) • Better understand distribution of animals within barns • Information used to design better barns and modify existing barns • Behavior monitoring-implications for estrus detection, time at feedbunk, social interactions Black et al.

  39. GEA CowView • Feeding time • Waiting time • Resting time • Mounting • Distance Covered

  40. Economic Considerations • Need to do investment analysis • Not one size fits all • Economic benefits observed quickest for heat detection/reproduction • If you don’t do anything with the information, it was useless • Systems that measure multiple parameters make most sense • Systems with low fixed costs work best for small farms

  41. Purdue/Kentucky Investment Model • Investment decisions for PDF technologies • Flexible, partial-budget, farm-specific • Simulates dairy for 10 years • Includes hundreds of random values • Measures benefits from improvements in productivity, animal health, and reproduction • Models both biology and economics

  42. Net Present Value (NPV) Simulation Results • Results from 1000 simulations • Positive NPV=“go” decision/make investment

  43. Tornado Diagram for Deterministic Factors Affecting NPV NPV establishes what the value of future earnings from a project is in today's money.

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