A common Dutch saying “meten is weten” translates to “measuring is knowing” in English. This saying could not be any more appropriate for precision dairy farming in the Netherlands. With more robotic milkers than any other nation and the ubiquitous use of technology, the Netherlands serves as a technological hub for the dairy industry.
Technology allows dairy farmers to “measure” and therefore “know” more information about their herds and individual animals. This has led farmers to use these technologies in some unique ways.
I was able to see these technologies firsthand during the International Conference on Precision Dairy Farming, hosted in the Netherlands, June 21-23, where I visited three dairy farms: Formsma-Steenbeek Dairy Farm, Dijkveld-Stol Dairy Farm and Bouma-Miedema Dairy Farm.
Formsma-Steenbeek Dairy Farm
At Formsma-Steenbeek Dairy Farm, Jaap Formsma recently took over the management of his family dairy farm. His parents will be decreasing their involvement in the dairy, leading to a decrease in available labor. Accordingly, labor efficiency is a major factor in decision-making. Currently, a single person can operate the dairy, and with 175 cows, this is no easy task. Formsma accomplishes this through a combination of technologies on his farm. He uses three automatic milking robots and a system similar to GPS for positioning and location, heat detection and health monitoring. The combination of technologies enables him to closely monitor his cows for changes in production or behavior, and then easily locate animals within his barns. This enables him to spend more time managing his farm than performing tasks. This approach appears to be working, as he is able to achieve a 22,000-pound herd average with 4.36 percent fat and 3.56 percent protein.
Dijkveld-Stol Dairy Farm
Reproductive success can be a challenge on many dairy farms. At Dijkveld-Stol Dairy, a unique partnership enabled the dairy to reach a greater level of reproductive success. Working closely with their breeding company to select matings and using activity monitors for heat and health detection, efficiency and quality are emphasized for their 290 cows. The monitors provided activity and rumination data for both the dairy and the mating specialists, who have open-access to this information, allowing them to work closely with the dairy in their breeding program. Cows beyond 30 days post-calving without a detected heat are flagged and checked by the technicians to verify reproductive status using trans-rectal ultrasonography, enabling faster identification of reproductive issues. This close relationship between the technology, the farmer and the reproductive specialists helps the herd achieve 22,000 pounds of milk, 4.5 percent fat and 3.7 percent protein.
Bouma-Miedema Dairy Farm
Technology is not limited to precision dairy monitoring technologies in the Netherlands. Much like in the U.S., genomics has become an important part of the Dutch dairy industry. At Bouma-Miedema, all cattle are genomically tested at birth. Only those with the highest genomic merit remain on the farm. The dairy also uses two robots to milk their 105 dairy cows, and a corresponding activity monitoring system aids with reproduction. Using their records, the farm averages 22,300 pounds of milk. PD
Matthew Borchers is a graduate researcher and teaching assistant at the University of Kentucky.
PHOTO 1: A system similar to GPS tracks cow movement, heat detection and health at Formsma-Steenbeek Dairy. Photo provided by www.precisiondairyfarming.com
PHOTO 2: Dijkveld-Stol Dairy shares the information from their activity and rumination monitors with breeding technicians to achieve sound reproduction. Photo by Matthew Borchers.
PHOTO 3: Bouma-Miedema Dairy uses two milking robots and an activity monitoring system. Photo provided by www.precisiondairyfarming.com
