Dairy farms face a growing mountain of data. While tools exist to distill it into useful insights, the challenge continues to expand alongside producers’ ability to manage it.
More data is collected on a dairy farm each day than on any other farming operation. Dairy producers face an uphill battle to analyze it and determine the nuggets that lead to better management decisions. Doing this efficiently can be the difference between a dairy that reaches its full potential and one that struggles to advance.
Every key dairy management area has its own data, created by specialized companies. Valuable on its own to inform decisions, it’s exponentially more powerful when connected. When systems connect, data can be extracted, analyzed, and used to guide daily protocols and metrics used to make continuous improvements.
Of course, getting different systems to talk to each other is easier said than done – especially when they’re competitors.
A neutral partner, like Connecterra, can bring the data together and neutralize the competitive environment. Its dashboard can pull data from upwards of 40 different integrations across the dairy, from milking to feeding, animal health, financials and more. Producers can even input a mailbox milk price and can cross-reference against herd data for accurate, real-time decision making.
Most importantly, Connecterra delivers time savings. Instead of spending hours combing through multiple websites and reports, producers can access everything in one place. What once took two hours a day can now be done in two hours a week.
Benefits of data analysis spread when others are given access. Reports from the Connecterra dashboard help inform protocols that guide daily employee activities. Their actions are more efficient and accurate, so the right animals get the proper interventions when they need them. Managers can track activity to ensure protocols are followed, reducing protocol drift and increasing efficiency.
Outside the dairy, anyone the producer chooses has access to the data. Veterinarians, nutritionists, bankers and more can access the Connecterra dashboard and follow herd metrics. The producer and their stakeholders can have a high-level look at data, identify pain points and create solutions.
Insights are delivered daily on up to 90 herd key performance indicators, and the user defines the handful that are most important for their operation. If data on those indicators shows cows going past thresholds, alerts identify the need for intervention. Pen-level analytics let users sort cows within pens by various indicators—days in milk, lactation stage, reproduction stage, etc. An impact tracker lets users indicate when a change happens and measure impacts. A farm briefing report comes every morning to the dairy and its advisors, or on demand as needed. Taking it up a notch, AI analytics finds trends and outliers, correlations and anomalies.
None of this would have been possible even a decade ago. Advanced technologies make integrations possible, and artificial intelligence makes data analysis faster and easier. Advisors get a clear picture of what’s happening on the dairy in an instant.
Validation is key, especially for skeptical team members. One clear chart or dashboard insight quickly validates the system’s value and helps earn buy-in across the team.
Experts will talk about the benefits of connected data during a Knowledge Nook session at World Dairy Expo. The session will be held on Thursday, October 2, at 2:30 in the atrium of the Exhibit Hall. On the panel will be:
- Allen Kutz, Kutz Dairy, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin
- PRODUCER - TBC
- Taliah Danzinger, Senior Product Manager with Connecterra (moderator)