Dairy farming

Automatic monitoring systems

• Automatic aids for health monitoring, activity measurement, and behavior monitoringusing sensors or camera technology are of paramount importance for agricultural businesses. These assistance systems offer the possibility of recording and analyzing atypical behavior patterns that humans may not recognize so early on. This means that diseases can be detected before they break out. This enables farmers to take swift and targeted countermeasures. Not only does this improve the health of the herd, it also prevents unrest and losses and reduces the use of medication. This enormous benefit makes the systems very attractive to farmers, despite the initial purchase costs. Combined with innovative herd management programs that incorporate sensor and camera data into decision-making aids, this contributes to further optimization and labor savings. 

Labor savings

• As in the last survey, those technological trends that reduce the workload on employees and save labor are considered particularly important. These include automatic milking and automated slatted floor or walking surface cleaning. The latter not only saves labor, but also means that cleaning can be carried out more often during the day, which has positive effects on hoof and udder health and udder cleanliness. 
• The shortage of skilled workers is a growing problem in dairy farming. It is extremely difficult for farms to find suitable employees. In some cases, this has led to farms deciding to invest in robot technology, even though it would make more economic sense to install a milking parlor.