Technology and data management

By Katelyn Goldsmith, Vita Plus | Data is abundant on today’s dairy farms.  It can serve as a powerful tool and also be overwhelming at times.  Have you looked at a spreadsheet or report and felt a little lost?  What does this data mean?  What is it telling me?  What do I do with the information?  Following are six steps to unravel your farm’s data and put it to work.

Dairy producers and industry peers gathered together June 15 and 16, 2022, in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, to network and gain practical insight from agricultural leaders. This e-news provides summary articles from the event sessions.

Dr. Kendra Wells is a leader in the use of lung ultrasounds to identify potential respiratory challenges in calves and make valuable management decisions.

Tim Kerfeld, J Hall, and Rebecca Davis own and/or manage vastly different operations, but all are intensely focused on the long-term success of their farming businesses. They compared their management strategies during a producer panel at the Vita Plus Midwest Dairy Conference.

Luke Laufenberg has joined his father and uncle full-time on the family farm and “technology implementer” is one of his many roles. Laufenberg shared the benefits of AMS his family has seen during his presentation at the Vita Plus Midwest Dairy Conference.

Randall Greenfield, Vita Plus vice president sales and business development, recently came across an article in which a farm owner said he was focused on “avoiding any catastrophic mistakes.” During his presentation at the Vita Plus Midwest Dairy Conference, Greenfield shared five things to watch to avoid catastrophes in a dairy farm business.

By Jon Rasmussen, Vita Plus dairy technology specialist Renewing or adopting feed management technology on your farm does not have to have to be a stressful process.  These nine steps can help simplify the process, clarify your goals and determine what system best meets your needs.

All the settings of an autofeeder work together and one change can affect the others.  Program the machine so that milk volume, minimum and maximum limitations, and concentration match your calf-feeding strategy.

By Mark Case
Every dairy farm has opportunities to improve efficiency and profitability.  One way to do this is to harness and make sense of your farm’s data.  By diving into the data behind each of these six factors, we can determine what management steps can have the biggest effects on efficiency and profitability.

By Jon Rasmussen
As computer herd management programs have improved, we have new opportunities to define what needs to be recorded and how this can help us not only treat calves, but also identify higher-level strategies for improvement. 

By Marin Western
Today’s dairy producers have a wealth of data at their fingertips. Details for health, reproduction, feedings and inventories just scratch the surface of the numbers that can be generated from farm data. One of the biggest challenges is what to do with all this information.  A study by Compeer Financial and Zoetis identified six factors that account for 85% of the variation in farm profitability.

By Peter Coyne
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are defined as measurable values that demonstrate how effectively a business meets its objectives.  Identifying and tracking a few simple, yet critical, KPIs can prevent farm managers from becoming bogged down in analysis and losing sight of what’s important to their operations.

By Jon Rasmussen
Have you visited a nature park and climbed to the top of a tall observation tower?  Finding your way through the woods is completely different after gaining this overview compared to standing on the ground.

How we observe cow behavior at the feedbunk can also really make a difference in what we see.  If we expand our view, we can gain a lot by improving feedbunk behavior.

More than 330 dairy producers, Vita Plus consultants and industry peers came together December 6 and 7 for Vita Plus Dairy Summit 2017 in Madison, Wisconsin.  Follow the links in this post to access full event coverage, including speakers' PowerPoint presentations, articles, videos and more.

By Laura Zagorski
As the trend of automation continues to rise in the dairy industry, so does the popularity and interest in robotic milking systems. Robotic milking systems can provide new opportunities in herd management.