How Precision Dairy
Technologies can
Change your World
L.J. Erasmus
Dept. Animal and Wildlife Sciences, University of Pretoria
Changing Dairy Landscape
• Fewer, larger dairy operations
• Narrow profit margins
• Increased feed and labour costs
• Cows are managed by fewer skilled
workers
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
Cow Challenges
1. Finding cows in heat
2. Finding and treating lame cows
3. Finding and treating cows with mastitis
4. Catching sick cows in early lactation
5. Understanding nutritional status of cows
a. Feed intake
b. Body condition (fat or thin)
c. Rumen health (pH/rumination time)
Reasons for Culling Cows
• Reproductive failure 26.3%
• Mastitis and udder problems 23.0%
• Lameness or injury 16.0%
• Other diseases 3.7%
• Poor milk production 16.0%
• Miscellaneous reasons
USDA, 2007
Precision Dairy Management
The use of automated mechanised
technologies toward refinement of dairy
management processes, procedures, or
Information collection.
Precision Dairy Farming Technologies
• Measure physiological, behavioural and
production indicators on individual animals
to improve management strategies and
performance
• Main objectives are maximising individual
cow potential, early detection of disease
and minimising use of medication through
preventative health measures
• Make more timely and informed decisions
• Supplement observational activities of
skilled herdsmen
Fatness or
Thinness
Rumination/pH
Temperature
MobilityHoof
Health
Mastitis
Respiration
Milk
content
Heart rate
Animal
position/location
Chewing
activity
Lying/
standing
behavior
Methane
emissions
Feed
intake
Areas to monitor
a dairy cow
Cow’s Biology
Heat duration• Cow’s heat lasts for 7 to 8 hours
• Affects the possibilities of the farmer to detect the cows in heat and inseminate with success
• It varies significantly between individual cows, but not between herds. 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
< 4 4 to 8 8 to 10 > 10
Holstein
Jersey
Hours
Data from cows at the Virginia Tech Dairy Cattle Centre
Risk in Estrous detection• Error 1 – not identify a cow in heat, this increase the
number of open days
• Error 2 – identify a cow in heat which is not in heat or inseminate at a wrong timing
cost a semen and labour
Timing for Insemination
OptimumInsemination Time
Standing Heat
Most FertilePeriod
Ovulation
0 5 10 15 20 25 30hours
Estrous activity during day & night
• This move a lot depending of the month due to the temperature…(warm season)
• 6 a.m. to noon 22%
• Noon - 6 p.m. 10%
• 6 p.m. – midnight 25%
• Midnight – 6 a.m. 43%
• Source. Oklahoma State university
REPRODUCTION- WORLD WIDE PROBLEM!
Estrus Detection
GEA
Rescounter II
AFI Pedometer
Plus
SCR HR
Tag/AI24
DairyMaster
MooMonitor/
SelectDetect
Track a CowBouMatic
HeatSeeker II
• 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
Reproductive Managementand Breeding
ALPROActivity Meter
The alarm is activated
Optimuminsemination time
Standing heat
Date/time
Activity level
Day 1 Day 2 11.00 18.00 Day 3 11.00
Estrus Detection
• Accubreed: Mounting activity, radio transmitter
glued onto tailhead of cow
• Anemon: Based on body temperature variation
and activity. Anebox transmitter fixed to cow’s
collar sends SMS alerts
• CowScant Activity Monitoring System -
pedometer
Vel’Phone
• Vaginal temperature monitor
• Notifications by text
message
• Insert one week before
calving date
• Accurate within 48 hours
• Different sizes for heifers
and cows
Video Monitoring
• Not a Precision Dairy Farming
Technology
• Can be used in conjunction
• Inexpensive
• Less late night surprises
Mastitis – Electrical Conductivity
• Ion concentration of milk changes,
increasing electrical conductivity
• Inexpensive and simple equipment
• Wide range of sensitivity and
specificity reported
• Results improve with quarter level sensors
• Improved results with recent algorithms
• Most useful when combined with
other metrics
Milk Colour
www.lely.com
• Colour variation (red, blue, and
green) sensors in some automatic
milking systems
• Reddish colour indicates blood(Ordolff, 2003)
• Clinical mastitis may change colour
patterns for three colours (red,
green and blue)
• Specificity may be limited
• Milk yield
• Milk temperature
• Fat content
• Protein
• Milk quality:
• Blood presence
• Lactose
• SCC level
Milk Monitors
Biosensors and Chemical Sensors
• Biological components (enzymes, antibodies, or micro-
organism)
• 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
Herd NavigatorMilk measurements
• Progesterone
• Heat detection
• Pregnancy detection
• LDH enzyme
• Early mastitis detection
• BHBA
• Indicator of subclinical ketosis
• Urea
• Protein status
Other Technologies
• AGIS Automation/CowManager
• Feeding Behavior
• Rumination
• Temperature
• Activity
• Smartbow
• Animal position/location
• Time management
AGIS Automation/
CowManager
Rumen Temperature
• Active reticulorumen bolus
• Transmits data automatically
• Uses
• Detect illness
• Estrus and ovulation
Rumen pH monitoring
• Resides in Reticulorumen
• Can Transmit
• pH data
• Temperature
• Place in all cows or select few
• Representative sample of herd
• Illness
• Feeding/drinking behaviour
• Acidosis
Amanda Sterrett
et al.
SCR Rumination Time• Measures rumination time
• Time between cud boluses
• Monitor metabolic status
Start with the cow and her activities during 24 h
Source: CJ. CMuller and J.A. Botha 1997
Cow Behaviour
Lying Behavior
• On-farm evaluation of lying time:
• Identification of cows requiring attention
(lameness, illness, estrus)
• Assessment of facility functionality/cow
comfort
• Potential metric to assess animal well-being
4-Sight-Fionn Technologies
• Northern Ireland
• Photosensitive optic beams across barns
• Software recognizes cows
• ID’s when cows cross beams
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
• Behaviour monitoring-implications for estrus
detection, time at feedbunk, social interactions
Randi Black et al.
Kentucky Precision Monitoring
• Quantify physiological and behavioural
changes associated with events
• Estrus
• Mastitis
• Metritis
• Lameness
• Respiratory diseases
• Metabolic diseases
• Using multiple Precision Dairy Farming
technologies
AlanyaAnimal Health
• Behavioral changes
• Temperature
• Lying/Standing Time
• Grazing Time
• Lameness
• Estrus Detection
(multiple metrics)
• Locomotion Scoring
C-Lock Inc.
• Greenfeed measures methane (CH4)
• Select for cows that are more
environmentally friendly
• Monitor impacts of farm changes (rations)
on greenhouse gas emissions
Body Condition Scoring
• 100% of predicted BCS were within 0.50 points
of actual BCS.
• 93% were within 0.25 points of actual BCS.
Bewley et al., 2008
Cow Sleep Monitoring
• Sleep Quality = Improved Immunity?
• New Way to Measure Cow Comfort?
Donohue, Llhamon, O’Hara, Klefot, and Bewley, 2013
Cow
Comfort
Robotic/Automatic Milking Systems
(AMS)
• AMS has gained widespread acceptance as
a way to reduce labour and improve lifestyle
of dairy farm families
• More than ………. AMS systems worldwide
• Improvements in health and milk production
have been reported
• More than $200 000 per robot (336 USD
/cow)
• One unit can perform around 150 milking
events /day – 60 to 70 cows /day
Are AMS profitable?
• Money available for rent, interest, labour, profit,
etc. was greater “per farm” on conventional dairies
by € 15 566 but was greater per “full time
employee” per year on AMS farms
• Labour on AMS farms 29% less
• A study of 34 herds in Spain reported average
production of 1509 kg milk from 53 cows producing
29 kg milk /day (Castro, 2012)
• JTP Farms reported an average production of
2933 kg milk /VMS for 4 units milking an average
of 62 cows producing 48 kg /milk /day
What automatic monitoring technologies do you currently have on your dairy?
Most used parameters Respondent (%)
Daily milk yield 52.3
Cow activity 41.3
Not applicable1 31.2
Mastitis 25.7
Milk components (e.g. fat, protein and SCC) 24.8
Standing heat 21.1
Feeding behaviour 12.8
Temperature 12.8
Body weight 11.0
Rumination 10.1
Rumen activity 9.2
1Respondents replying “Not applicable”, were those not currently utilizing
precision technologies on their farms
Usefulness of Precision Dairy Technologies (%)
Description %
Milk yield 81
Standing heat 78
Mastitis 77
Activity 76
Temperature 60
BCS 17
Cow cleanliness 17
Heart rate 12
Position / Location 10
GHG emissions 5
Cautious Optimism
• Critics say it is too technical or challenging
• We are just beginning
• Precision Dairy won’t change cows or people
• Will change how they work together
• Improve farmer and cow well-being
Future Vision
• New era in dairy management
• Exciting technologies
• New ways of monitoring and improving
animal health, well-being, and
reproduction
• Analytics as competitive advantage
• Economics and human factors are key
Reproduction/Feeding measurements
More about the measurement parameters
Progesterone – this hormone shows the reproductive status of each cow, including heat, pregnancy, miscarriage and reproductive diseases.
LDH – an enzyme which becomes significantly more active in cases of mastitis. LDH is used as a mastitis indicator with the focus on detecting sub-clinical cases at an early stage.
BHB – a ketone which is secreted when the liver is not functioning optimally. BHB is a good indicator of how the cow deals with the beginning of lactation. BHB indicates ketosis and other feeding-related conditions.
Urea – a part of metabolised protein which indicates whether there is an excess or deficiency in the protein supply in feed.
Source: Anna Larsson, Swedish University of Agriculture
Fertility 31%Mastitis 29%Low Yield 19%Difficult milking 6%Hoof and leg lesions 6%Udder lesions 3%Other problems 6%
Total sum 100%
Reasons for involuntary culling (Research with 160 farmers)
In Parlour feeding:
•Reality to feed 4 feeds on any rotary, as stand alone feature
•Feed cost as % of production cost today? (about R55 per day per cow on TMR)
Lying Behavior Monitors
• On-farm evaluation of lying time:
• Identification of cows requiring attention
(lameness, illness, estrus)
• Assessment of facility functionality/cow
comfort
• Potential metric to assess animal well-being