Livestock farming contributes to around 18% of the global green house gas emissions, much of which originates from primary production. Livestock farming should be sustainable, which is linked to factors such as processing inefficiency, water consumption and waste caused by animal welfare and culling as well as improved environmental performance. There are also negative perceptions of the industry associated with animal welfare.
Monitoring animal health can lead to better preventive decisions, with win-win economic and environmental gains and improved animal welfare. SILF aims to kick-start a new, sustainable era of livestock farming that considers ‘People’, ‘Planet’ and ‘Profit’ and secures future global food supplies with high protein valued animal products.
Dairy production
in Europe is now highly specialized but varies from confinement systems (common in Denmark for instance) to three season grazing systems (common in Ireland).
Sectorial sustainability is related to environmental burden, energy consumption and profit. Key influencing factors are feed management, energy consumption and animal welfare.
Production data are available from national databases, logged and categorised by herd, group or individual, that detail genetic merit and thus allow calculation of management targets largely determined by the energy demand of the lactating cow. These include desired weight gain, drying off periods, winter-feed requirements, summer rations and grazed grass targets.
EU farmers have access to feed optimization programs, but these are rarely, if ever, integrated with information on other aspects of sustainability.
Farm decision support
Real or near-real time accumulation of milk yield and composition data, veterinary treatments, insemination planning, days in milk, calving date and complications, longevity, and number of lactation which appear in current databases will allow multi-facetted sustainability information to be provided for farm decision support in the form of indicators that will allow farmers to optimise their milk production systems based on national and site-specific conditions.
Energy consumption
Farm energy consumption contributes to environmental burden through consumption of resources and GHG emissions (IPCC, 2007). Efficient control of animal house internal environment results in less pollution, optimum energy use and improved animal health, welfare, productivity and reproduction, thus providing secure farm income.
The need for ‘a farm platform’ for decision-making
Management and decision-making are now very complex because farmers must consider production data, farm centric production history, national and European rules for environmental loads, global emission factors, product quality requirements, prices, and subsidies.
The consequences of a decision in terms of economy, environment, social and animal welfare and production are difficult to evaluate. This process is even more difficult as direct observations of real time consequences are not possible and information to support decisions is imprecise.
By creating a platform to gather relevant production (e.g. quality, yields, indoor climate, labour requirements) and background data (e.g. price trends, subsidies), with user centric features to support decisions, a first step towards smart integrated livestock farming will be made.
Deployment of “information clouds” and using the concept of the “Internet of Things”, to create a “Farm Platform” will facilitate use of real time farm information and appropriate algorithms to support improved on farm decision making for sustainable management.
