Providing intelligent and user-friendly solutions that make farm life simpler and more profitable: that is our mission. This includes the smart use of data to make your company more efficient and effective. One way to do this, is 'Smart Dairy Farming'. Within the scope of the project Smart Dairy Farming, we supply measuring equipment to enable the continuous weighing of animals.

Smart dairy farming is a project, developed in the Netherlands, that’s using information to improve the dairy industry. By collecting, analysing and using data, you can improve the sustainability and efficiency of a company.

Knowledge, data and technological advances are used by companies to increase the sustainability and improve the efficiency. The health and productivity of the cow are of the upmost importance. By ensuring these are both as high as possible, the industry will improve and become more sustainable. This will have a positive effect on animals, farmers and the industry as a whole.

A farmer who practices Smart Dairy Farming, uses data to be able to monitor his cows on an individual level. As a result, he can tailor the care of his cows to the characteristics and needs of the individual animal and thereby optimize its production.

Constantly weighing of dairy young stock

Gallagher facilitates the continuous measurement of the weight of the calves. Every time they go to the feeding trough to eat or to the drinking trough to drink, the animal is being identified and weighed. For the identification, RFID is used. The collected data is stored into a cloud database. From there it can be analysed and combined with other data regarding that animal.

Datahubs like Joindata (formerly Infobroker) can then make data the from different sensor suppliers and systems available for application suppliers, thus creating one dashboard for the farmers with all collected data.

The animal weighing is done using a Gallagher weighing platform and an ISO compatible EID panel  reader. When an animal steps on the weighing platform and load bars, the weight is measured and send to a controller. The Reader identifies the animal, and also sends this information to the same controller. The combined data (EID + weight) is then sent in real-time via a webserver in the cloud. From a website, the stored data can be visualized, accessed and analysed.

Collect, combine and share data

Weight is one of the measurements within Smart Dairy Farming. Other measurements that are performed include, for example, exercise, health, fertility and nutrition. The farmer combines the data and uses this to optimise his business. The aim here is to be able to tailor the care to the individual animal.

By sharing available data, you can put the agricultural sector in its power and achieve the best opportunities. Cooperation JoinData was established to make this possible. JoinData is a joint venture, in which several agricultural organisations join forces to make Smart Dairy Farming possible. They ensure that data can be shared safely. JoinData does not store data itself, but makes it possible to work with it. The farmer himself remains the owner of the data, but can share it with whom he wants.

Would you like to practice Smart Dairy Farming as well?

Would you like to know more about Smart Dairy Farming? Please contact us, so we can advise you.

Check out our complete Weighing and EID assortment