Technology and Data Management on the Dairy Farm- Mini Series Session 1 (Virtual)

From milking parlors, to robots, to sophisticated software... farmers are increasingly using technology to make management decisions on the farm. 

Dairy farming has evolved greatly over the last few decades.  If there was ever an industry in need of new technologies to become leaner and greener, it’s dairy farming. Many different kinds of technologies exist in the market today. The sheer number of various technologies and the information produced by them can be overwhelming and confusing. Technologies monitoring various parameters are available to farmers and often these technologies fall into categories including Nutrition, Production, Animal Health, Fertility, and Environmental.

The decision to adopt a technology depends on factors such as management style, familiarity with computers, ease of use, type of housing system, and perceived benefit to cost ratio.  Farmers have many considerations before adopting and implementing dairy technologies. Farmers must consider their unique objectives as well as family needs.  Technology, and increased access to data are enabling dairy farmers to make smarter day-to-day decisions to improve cow health, production, and on-farm efficiencies.

According to dairy tech expert Jeffrey Bewley, “technology can help farmers in many aspects on the farm and the farmers who can capitalize on the value of the data will have a competitive advantage in the future.”

Bewley, an expert in dairy analytics and technology and currently working at Holstein Association USA, will delve deeper in the role of technology on dairy farms on February 17th starting at 12:30 p.m. To register visit go.osu.edu/precisiondairy1