Graduate study “Sensors in Dairy farming - AgroCenter.nl Research Bio... · - “Graduate study “Sensors in Dairy farming” - Foreword/preface We would like to thank the owner

- “Graduate study “Sensors in Dairy farming” -

Sensors in Dairy farming

Leeuwarden, september 2005 Pieter- Karst Bouma Jelmer Hilverda


Sensors in Dairy farming

Authors : Pieter- Karst Bouma : 820702003 Jelmer Hilverda : 810306001 Principal : Project “Animal in balance” In co-operation with : DeLaval Compagnons Project : B. Prins (LEI), J.P.T.M. Noordhuizen

(UniversityUtrecht) Compagnon(s) school : N. Konijn, Y. Kuipers Date : September 2005 Place : Leeuwarden


Foreword/preface

We would like to thank the owner of the project, the Dutch agricultural economical institute (LEI), the people who helped us to get the right information and the contacts which we could need for our project. Especially we would like to thank Mr. Prins (LEI) and Professor Noordhuizen (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Utrecht), our supervisors during this project. We really appreciate the positive influence, the clear ideas and their support that they give us along this four months of the research.

Especially thanks to Mr. Lind, manager research and development of Delaval. It was fantastic to visit their company and the Hamra Farm (the research farm of Delaval) in Sweden. It was very interesting to brainstorm with Mr. Lind about “Sensors in Dairy farming”.

Thanks to our supervisors at Van Hall Instituut Ms. Kuipers and Mr. Konijn. We really appreciate their cooperation. We would like to thank M Heerink manager raw materials of Friesland Foods and H. Hopster, lector of animal welfare of the Van Hall Institute. It was very interesting to hear the demands of the different sectors. Finally thanks to the Farmers that we have interviewed, Berend Jan Wilms, Harm Ziel and Walter Gerritsen. Trough this interviews we got a clear view of how the project is working in practice. They were really helpful and hospitable.


Summary

The project “Animal in balance” presents a vision on the future of dairy farming and what kind of farms there will be in 2025. As a starting point, the project gives an image of three different types of farms. For a clear view, you can see as on the front page of our report that the pictures are in a triangle. In the middle of the triangle is the biggest group of farmers. These are the farmers who are producing at a low cost price. The project “Animal in balance” tried to look for the most extreme farm types. These are the farms that are on the edge of the triangle. They came on the utility farm, a special dairy farm which can produce milk for medical use. The cows are high productive and everything is automated and controlled by sensors. The second farm is the rights farm. On this farm play the nature and the citizens an emphatic role. It is a farm were the cows are walking almost the whole year outside and are milk en fed automatically in the pasture. The third and last type of farm is the virtue farm. This farm is created through cooperation between a few arable farmers and some dairy farmers. They are trying to get some profits through their scale up of farming and self provided in roughage and other raw materials.

By doing the research about sensors in dairy farming, we had also to listen to the consumers/citizens. They are the people that have to buy the products of the processing industry. The dairy farmers delivering their raw material, the milk, to the diary factory so the demands of the consumers are also very important for the farmers in the future..

The citizens don’t have any problems with scale up of the dairy farming, they like spreading of the farms over the country and a precondition is that farmers are interacting properly with the landscape. People have the opinion that freedom of movement is one of the most important components of animal welfare and have the opinion that animals have to be outside. The citizens want a transparent dairy farming, so they can have a look in it. Many people do not see animal welfare in food production mainly as their responsibility in their role as consumers, so it is a task of the farmers themselves to give the animals good circumstances. Consumers pay most attention to the price of products, but food safety and quality is also an important item. Most of the consumers have the opinion that the supermarkets are responsible for the safety of the products, and not the farmers in the first place. Consumer’s attitudes and public opinions appear to vary over time. This will have an impact on issues addressed to this report

When we know the preconditions and the demands of the processing industry we have an idea what kind of part the dairy factory plays in the dairy farming. We must not forget that the demands of the dairy factory for every dairy farmer the standard of milk production is. This is way there is a need of sensors which measure the volume level in the tank, the composition of the milk , fat/protein values and the presence of antibiotics in the milk. Risk reducing on the primary company is for them a positive economical development. Not on one specific farm because the production of milk is on each farm the head branch, and must satisfy the quality requirements which are applied then.

Showed in the rapport and according to interviews is that the locomotion of the cows is one of the most important issues for now and in the future. There are a few terms that have influence on the locomotion of the animals, mentioned: barn and barn climatic conditions, housing conditions, feed and feeding management, general disease resistance


and specific behavior. Al these terms has to do with cow comfort. These terms are also related to the twelve biological needs. From these features addressed in the forenamed 5 clusters appears that farm management plays a pivotal role in achieving optimal cow comfort. A farmer has his own capacity, there is some difference between farmers, but normally is the maximum herd size around 60 cows. You can imagine that through scale up the farm in the future there’s a need for an information system which can help the farmer with his management. When a farmer can optimize these five terms through the use of a management system which collected information measured by sensors, the locomotion, and the welfare and health of the animals will be improved. The book cow signals could be a guide line for the problems with the dairy cows nowadays.

In the dairy farming are nowadays some problem areas on the health of the animals. According to interviews with experts we have found the 4 problem area’s claw problems, mastitis, fertility and metabolism problems. The best way to increase the profit that farmers can get is to detect diseases in a earlier stadium, preferable in the pre pathogenic phase. So we have to combine sensors of all the 4 problem areas into a computer system which can analyze the data and can give warnings to the farmers if there’s something wrong. More for using at the utility farm, we are thinking of a therapy robot, which can give automatically medicines and even hormones to the cows and take blood samples of the animals. In the stable of the utility farm possible to place sensors which control the climate and the air quality, for example the presence of antigens

A very important chance is the coupling of all the information that even now already available is for the dairy farmers. In this way we can think of information from the milk factory, herd book, milk production registration, veterinary, milking machine dealer and the management system of the farmer himself. In this way the farmers becomes a lot of information about his herd and it can save some sensors. The information is faster, because everything is measured on the farm so it is faster available for the dairy farmer. Trough this, the farmer has the possibility to intervene earlier. For applying sensors on the three different types of farms we have choose sensors for each of this farms. On all the farms we will apply the milk tank volume and composition control system. To get information about the behaviour of the cows, there is coming a GPS bolus/chip in the cow to can define every time where she is. In the milking systems on the farms has to be cell count, fat/protein and antibiotics measuring to guarantee the quality of the milk. Especially for the utility farm we will apply a injection robot which can also take blood samples and can measure antigens, hormones and viruses.

According to our research we have made conclusions and gave some recommendations for the project and for DeLaval. The most important ones you can mention below: There is a need for further research for the technical specifications of the sensors, we only gave the areas where they have to be implemented en where they’re needful. To say what the real applying of the sensors will be, the farmers have to be in a further stadium of the development of the typical farm. When the farmers know what the concept and the development of the stable layout is, they can think more concrete of how the sensors can be implemented. The combination of our research with the two others who are researching how the stables going to look like on the three farms, can give a more clear


view of how the bio sensors will and can be applied. These are the conclusions for the project

The advice for DeLaval is most on the area of developing. There are a lot of new ideas which they already working on but there are also some new ideas which are interesting to look at. It is not that our outcomes are the only ones but it give an idea were the sensors will be need, at least on which kind of area. It is not new that the problem areas like the mastitis, the claw condition, locomotion, and the fertility of the cows are the most important to look after in the future. But is shows again that there’s a need for a good management system which is feed from information that is measured through sensors.

There must be developed a sensor which can measure the contents of the blood and the presence of antigens. When this is possible we can intervene before the sub-clinical phase. The so called pathogenically phase. The developing of a milk and feed robot which can stand in outside in the pasture, this will be applied on the “Rights” farm. Another point of interest is a milk tank with volume measuring + composition of the milk and a antibiotic warning system, on the “Utility” farm will this be applied per cow in the milking parlour. Further developing of the ‘walk trough’ scale is interesting for the virtue and utility farm. When it’s possible to give medicines means an injection robot and also hormones, it is easier to treat the sick cows. A development of a bolus which can measure the pH, the temperature and the rumen activity, can help the farmer to manage his cows and feed them on the way he wants. An umbrella management program can couple all information and gives a warning signal when there’s something wrong, pre condition is that it has to be practical with for example a green, orange or red light.

Beside these two paragraphs we have some ideas which Overall conclusions/recommendations. Nano technology can be interesting to be applied in dairy farming. This is in a early stage op development but can be an improvement for the dairy farming. To develop a bolus in the form of a mini submarine, it can be made that it has an self-cleaning functioning to avoid the arise of a bio-film. For the identification of the cow they can use a chip, this chip can also measure for example the hard beat, the temperature and maybe the position and activity (GPS) of the cow. There’s a need for research to ensure that the chip remains his place in the body of the cow. Our opinion is that in the future there going to be genetically modified cows (especially on the Utility farm). We the sector can indicate that is has a positive influence on the public health it will be socially justified. To avoid any outbreaks of diseases and to ascertain the healthiness of the cows, there’s a need of virus detector applied in for example the aerator in the stable. This detector gives a sign when the quantity antigens are coming above a certain standard. With the developing of new sensors and techniques they must not consider with the legislation of nowadays, this legislation is to obstructing. The legislation is changing over time. In the future will the applying of sensors in the cow socially justified if you can show that is giving a contribution to the public health An idea for the application of new techniques, the milk- and feed robot on the “Rights” farm must look like a hover craft, than you don’t have any problems with the carrying capacity of the soil and the traction of the robot. A very curious outcome of our report is that a lot of the knowledge is already developed but not applicable in dairy farming. They are already so far that they can measure the type of antigens, the resistance of the medical industry stops further developments


We can conclude that there are a lot of sensors which are developed (or almost

developed) by different companies and research centres. In principle there’s a lot of the technology’s that we need for the sensors and the applying of them available, but producers have to know which sensors are needful for the future, and on what kind of areas they have to be implied. Only then, they can make the sensors affordable and usable for the dairy farming sector. That’s why we think that the outcomes of our research can be used for further research and gives DeLaval an idea what has to be done to make the productivity and the scale up of the farms in the future easy to control and manage by the practical dairy farmer.


Table of contents Introduction....................................................................................................................... 10 1 The opinion of the citizens and consumers............................................................... 15

1.1 Introduction............................................................................................................. 15 1.2 Opinion and demands of the citizens...................................................................... 15

1.2.1 Scale up of the farms........................................................................................ 15 1.2.2 Animals in or outside....................................................................................... 16 1.2.3 Transparency.................................................................................................... 16 1.2.4 Animal welfare and animal health ................................................................... 16 1.3.1 Definition of food safety.................................................................................. 17 1.3.2 Consumers about food safety........................................................................... 17

1.4 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 17 2. Pre-conditions/ demands of the processing industry .................................................... 19

2.1 Introduction............................................................................................................. 19 2.2 The quality system in the Netherlands.................................................................... 19 2.3 Royal Friesland Foods ............................................................................................ 21 2.4 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 22

3. The demands of animal welfare/health ......................................................................... 23 3.1 Animal welfare........................................................................................................ 24

3.1.1. Introduction..................................................................................................... 24 3.1.2. Cow comfort ................................................................................................... 25 3.1.3. Biological needs.............................................................................................. 26

Conclusion animal welfare ........................................................................................... 29 3.2 Animal Health......................................................................................................... 30

3.2.1 Problem-area’s ................................................................................................. 30 3.2.2 Diagnostics....................................................................................................... 30 3.2.3 Different phases of a disease............................................................................ 31 3.2.4 Management support, including risk assessment............................................. 32 3.2.5 Therapy ............................................................................................................ 32 3.2.7 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 33

4. Inventory of sensors in dairy farming........................................................................... 34 4.1. Current state of the art............................................................................................ 34

4.1.1 Welfare............................................................................................................. 34 4.1.2 Health............................................................................................................... 37

4.2. State of the art at Delaval....................................................................................... 39 4.3. Future perspectives/conclusion.............................................................................. 40

5. The trends for using sensors in the future..................................................................... 42 5.1. Utility/Profit ........................................................................................................... 43

5.1.1. Short term........................................................................................................ 43 5.1.2. Long term........................................................................................................ 44

5.2. Rights/People ......................................................................................................... 45 5.2.1. Short term........................................................................................................ 45 5.2.2. Long term........................................................................................................ 45

5.3. Virtues/Planet......................................................................................................... 46 5.3.1. Short term........................................................................................................ 46


5.3.2. Long term........................................................................................................ 46 6. The applying of sensors on the three farms within the project ..................................... 47

6.1 Virtue ...................................................................................................................... 47 6.2 Utility ...................................................................................................................... 48

7 Conclusions and recommendations................................................................................ 52 7.1 Conclusion and recommendations for “Animal in balance”................................... 52 7.2 Conclusions/Recommendations DeLaval ...............................................................53 7.3 Overall recommendations ....................................................................................... 54 Literature list ................................................................................................................. 55

Appendices........................................................................................................................ 57 I Conversation with Hans Hopster................................................................................ 57 III Interview questions .................................................................................................. 59

- “Graduate study “Sensors in Dairy farming” - 10

Introduction

For dairy farming in the future there are many important reasons for monitoring the quality of the products of this sector. The consumers only demand products with a very high quality and food-safety. The society is also demanding good animal welfare on the farm and the farmers have to work very environment-friendly. For this reason, it is important for the dairy farming sector to develop a quality system to ascertain the complete production process, including the animal-, herd-, farm management and farm environment.

A group of dairy farmers from the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany wants to realize a renewing of their own dairy farm that leads to a socially justified dairy farm. Their own situation, own objectives and own competencies is the departure point for the employers. Not only the farmers are active in the project, a group from the agribusiness is also joining the project. Members of that group are DeLaval (milking equipment), JOZ (Manure technique), Spinder (stable equipment) and Brandes Innovation team (stable design). The third group who plays an active role exists of researchers from WUR (Wageningen University) and Faculty Animal Health of Utrecht. The citizen or consumer is not a specific group but plays an emphatic role in the project “Animal in balance”. We have to be aware that everything that we are doing is considered ethically.

The project is owned by the LEI (Agricultural Economical Institute). The companion from the LEI is Mr. Prins, and acts as our contact person. Our technical backup is Professor Noordhuizen, he is working at the faculty of vet. medicine at the University of Utrecht. He helps us by giving information from the big “network” of the University. They have also contacts with experts from other Universities in for example Israel and the USA.

Our project “Sensors in dairy farming” is part of the project “Animal in balance”. They asked us to do a research of what the trends of using sensors in the future are and how they will be implied on the dairy farm. We write this report only for the project “Animal in balance”, this is why we suggest that the readers have some background knowledge of the project

.

- Graduate study “Sensors in Dairy farming” - 11

Description and definition of the problem The project “Animal in balance” presents a vision on the future of dairy farming

and what kind of farms there will be in 2025. As a starting point, the project gives an image of three different types of farms. For a clear view, you can see as on the front page of our report that the pictures are in a triangle. In the middle of the triangle is the biggest group of farmers. The project “Animal in balance” tried to look for the most extreme farm types. So they came on the following farm types: “Utility”, “Rights” and “Virtue”. Not all of the farmers can apply one of these types because otherwise there become too many of them. This (4th) residual group of farmers will produce for the low- cost price in the future. A small explanation about these three farms, each of these three farms can be referenced to one of the three P’s (People, Planet and Profit). Utility can be coupled to profit, Rights to planet and Virtues to people. Through this coupling it makes the logic more clear. But it is not that there’s no other links between the farms. For an example when you have the Utility farm, people and planet are also important but the main target is profit. This counts also for the other three farms. There’s some overlap. A few characteristics of the three farms you can see in the table 1 below. Table 1: characteristics of the three farms (source: “Animal in balance”)

For the project “Animal in balance” there’s a need for a study of what the use of sensors is in dairy farming nowadays is and what it will be in the future. In the future there are some areas on animal welfare and animal health which need more attention. The information which is needful to treat the problems, can me collected by sensors which are implied on the farm. There will be a difference of application on the three farms. In the pictures below you get an idea of how the different farm looks in the future. Also one of the objectives is that this project, “Animal in balance”, has to result that dairy farmers get a bigger and wider view of farming. Through this, the farmers get the item “justified dairy farming” more clear. To ascertain the quality of the different processes on a dairy farm, the farmer has to watch over many things and this takes a lot of work. To automate this “safety-guarding” system, the farmers need sensors which are connected to a computer that gives a warning if there is something going wrong.

Utility Rights Virtue Product Special

product, e.g. protein

“Naturemilk”, nature, recreation

Amstel-milk, services to colleagues

Scale World-wide Regional Local

Relation consumer

Market Market Participation in production

Relation citizen

- Recreational consumer

Citizen = consumer

Cow Cow may-be genetically modified High milk yield

Cow that can cope with natural circumstances

No GMO-cow, high milk yield

Investment Outside investment

Farmer = owner


Figure 1: “Utility/profit farm”

Figure 2: “Rights/nature farm”


Figure 3: “Virtue/community farm”

Defining It is important that we define our project because otherwise it is too exhaustive. In

the enumeration below there are some points that we know before we start the real research. Through the time the funnel becomes smaller and smaller.

- The project is focused on dairy farming - The project is primarily focused on the complete company system - The project is not focused on the chain (that means that the project is not

developing new chains). However the supplying and processing industry are important stakeholders.

- The project chooses as departure point: dairy farm 2025. - The biosensors maybe can not be placed in the cow, this for ethical reasons. - The consumers do not play a specific role, however the development of the

project must be, socially justified. Main question of the research: How can biosensors help us in the future with the realisation of socially justified and desired dairy farming, based on People (Virtue), Planet (Rights) and Profit (Utility)? Sub-questions Sub-questions of the research:

- What will be the demands of the consumers in the future? 1 *

- What will be the pre conditions of the processing industry in the future about

animal welfare, animal health and quality of the dairy products? 2 *

- What will be the demands of animal health/welfare in the future? 3 *

- What is the status quo at this moment in the field of sensors that are used in dairy farming in the world, and what are the attention point given by the practical farmers who are implying one of the three farms on their own farm? 4 *

- What are the trends for using sensors in the future on the three farms

(Utility/Profit, Rights/People and Virtues/Planet based on the short term (5-10 years) and the long term (> 20 years)? 5 *

- How will the sensors be applied on the three different types of farm? 6 *

* In the research design we explain what kind of information we need to get an answer to these sub questions. We also described where we have to find this information, by interviewing or by a literature study.


Objective

The objective is that how can (bio)sensors give an contribute to get a justified and durable dairy farming. More concrete, this means that how can (bio)sensors give an contribute on the improvement of animal welfare, animal health, profit and food safety (the 3 P’s) on the three different farms. By making an inventory of sensors at the dairy farm, is it possible to get a good image of what kind of sensors there are, or could be developed. We also need an inventory of the demands in the future of the processing industry. Because the product must satisfy the high quality demands of the supplying and processing industry. In this way we want to give a prophecy about the use of sensors on dairy farms in the short term (5-10 years) and long term (2025). Pre condition is that it has to give an economic profit and be socially/ ethically accepted.


1 The opinion of the citizens and consumers

1.1 Introduction The consumers and citizens are the persons who have to buy the products which

are produced on the three different types of farms. Citizens are persons who want a clean world, where animals are in the pasture and want to eat biological food. The consumer is getting a cheap fast-food meal at the Mc Donalds. But a problem is that one person in a lot of time also can be a consumer or citizen. So the demands of the consumers and citizens are important for the way the farmers have to produce their products. In the project “Animal in balance” it is very important to know the demands of the consumers, because we want to realize a socially justified dairy farming. Also in the future on the three types of the desired farms are the demands of the consumers and citizens important to know. At the Virtue dairy (where the consumers can work in their spare time) and the Rights dairy (what looks like a kind of recreation park) it is very important to focus on the demands and wishes of the people who are coming to the farm. At the Utility dairy is the most important condition of the consumers, that all what’s happening on this farm has to be transparent. Only then they will maybe accept this “industrial” way of high tech farming. People can look by a webcam in the farm, but they can not visit because of hygienic reasons (milk for medical use). So we can say that on this type of farm the consumer may have a look on the production process, but the objective at this farm is to produce a special quality products by high technology applications.

After writing this chapter, we will have a good picture of the wishes and opinions of the consumers and citizens about the dairy farming. We need this information to have the right pre-conditions to implement sensors on the dairy farming.

1.2 Opinion and demands of the citizens

1.2.1 Scale up of the farms Most of the citizens don’t know that there is a difference between small en big

dairy farms; they think that all dairy farms are the same. So it is a fact that citizens don’t know anything about the scale up of most dairy farms. The cause can be that very many people don’t know what’s happening on the dairy farms nowadays. People don’t want a concentration on one place of all farms, but they like a spreading of the farms over the country. People like a varied landscape and they understand the economic interests of the farmers, but they think the landscape is more important than the agricultural production for export. In the future by further scale up of the farms, the farmers have to find a middle course to work with the landscape. (“Groot, groter, … duurzaamst!?”, LEI 2005)


1.2.2 Animals in or outside Almost all the citizens have the opinion that the animals of the dairy farms have

to be outside. They think it is important that the animals have enough space to walk around and can behave naturally It is also important for the citizens that the farmers pay attention to the biological needs of the animals. People have the opinion that freedom of movement is one of the most important components of animal welfare.

1.2.3 Transparency A visible and checkable way of producing on the dairy farms is a very important

item for the citizens. They think that they can look easier in small farms, and these farms are more accessible. The bigger farms are seen by the citizens as business, closed and impersonal. The media creates also a bad image of the bigger dairy farms; for the citizens it seems to be that big dairy farms are bio-industry. So it is very important that farms are open for the consumers and they can have a look inside and know what’s happening and how it’s working on a dairy farm.

1.2.4 Animal welfare and animal health In the last 10 years diseases have had a great impact on the farming sector. The

impacts of BSE and the foot and mouth disease are also still present in the memory of a lot of people. And also the trouble with animal foods, even was the cause a lot of time in a foreign country, did not good to the image of the sector. At this diseases and food scandals the communication between farmers, government, society and media is very important to explain these happenings on a correct way. In Germany we saw a very big fall of the beef consumption after the first cases of BSE in that country. A fact is that in that country, there are made mistakes in the communication to the consumers. The government couldn’t explain to the society how the disease was coming in to the country and how they have to handle with this disease. This gives an example how important communication is for the dairy farming sector. National variations regarding public concerns as reflected in consumer practices must also be seen in the light of each country's social distribution of responsibility for animal welfare. Many people do not see animal welfare in food production mainly as their responsibility in their role as consumers. They mean that this is a task of the farmers to give their animals good living circumstances. Consumers and citizens are defining animal welfare as following: “Animals has to be outside as much as possible, they have space to move around and have to be in a good health. Animal health and welfare are in the first place a requirement to produce in a durable and economical justified way. Healthy animals produce more and better, so it’s a requirement for the dairy farmer to keep a good health in his herd.


Also the dairy farming sector cannot permit them selves to get a bad image to have animals who are kept in bad circumstances. (source:”Hoe oordelen we over de veehouderij?”, Rathenau Instituut 2001) 1.3 Demands and opinions of the consumers

1.3.1 Definition of food safety By “food safety” is meant: “the guaranty that food has no negative impacts for the

health of the user when it’s been prepared or eaten, in compliance with aim and way of the consumption of it”. (“Consumententrends 2003”, EFMI 2003) Frequently food safety is confused with food quality. Quality means that a product satisfies to the expectations of the consumers. Food safety is a part of this, beside characteristics like taste, fragrance and colour. However food safety is a minimum required, we can not argue about this. On the other hand are all the other quality standards the result of concrete or not concrete agreements between producer and processing industry of consumer. So a product can be save and at the same time not really taste good.

1.3.2 Consumers about food safety When buying products from the supermarket, the consumers pay most attention to

price, durability and special offers. Advantage plays a big role at buying of the products, but we have not to forget safety and transparency. More than 50% of the consumers pay often attention to the country of origin of the products they are buying. Consumers want more information about the way of producing of the products, especially regarding meat. The reason for this is the lot of food-incidents in the last years. So the transparency of the dairy chain is very important to give the consumer a good idea what’s going on in this sector. Most of the consumers have the opinion that the supermarkets are responsible for the safety of the products, and not the farmers in the first place.

1.4 Conclusion Citizens don’t have any problems with scale up of the dairy farming, they like

spreading of the farms over the country and a precondition is that farmers are interacting properly with the landscape. People have the opinion that freedom of movement is one of the most important components of animal welfare and have the opinion that animals have to be outside. The citizens want a transparent dairy farming, so they can have a look in it. Many people do not see animal welfare in food production mainly as their responsibility in their role as consumers, so it is a task of the farmers themselves to give the animals good circumstances.

Consumers pay most attention to the price of products, but food safety and quality is also an important item. Most of the consumers have the opinion that the supermarkets are responsible for the safety of the products, and not the farmers in the first place.


Consumers’ attitudes and public opinions appear to vary over time. This will have an impact on issues addressed to this report. Important outcomes:

- Scale up of dairy farms is no problem. - Farmers have to interact properly with the landscape. - Freedom of movement is important for animals according to the citizens. - Animals have to be outside. - Animal welfare and health is not a demand of the consumers; they mean it’s

normal the farmers give the animals good circumstances. - Most important is the price of products, but also food safety and quality. - Supermarkets are the first responsible for safety of the products. - Consumers and public opinions can change in the future.


2. Pre-conditions/ demands of the processing indust ry

2.1 Introduction To research what kind of biosensors can be used on dairy farms in the future it is important to know what the preconditions of the processing industries are, because they have a big influence in the marketing area of the dairy products. To ascertain the milk quality there are several ways of using sensors in, for example, the milking parlour. The pre-conditions of the processing industry are linked to the “utility farm”. This is because this type of farm is most related to the processing industry, they are only focused on high production levels. On a high-tech farm is the consistent quality of the product the main precondition. Not only on the Utility farm are the preconditions important, also on the other two farms, but on the utility farm it is the main demand. When we know the preconditions of the industry we have the most important criteria of selecting and implementing the sensors on the three farms. Farmers must meet to the quality demands which are directly or indirectly imposed by the processing industry.

2.2 The quality system in the Netherlands Before we can say what kind of sensors can be implemented we have to know

how the quality system is organized in the Netherlands. Until now the quality in the Netherlands is guaranteed. In the Dutch dairy industry, each aspect, like quality, of production and processing is carried out according to a fixed set of strict standards. These, in turn, have been based on extensive risk analyses of each individual process.

Over the years, quality care in Dutch dairy production has developed into an integrated chain management system. It is based on the view that safe, high-quality end products can only be achieved in a supply chain in which all the companies involved operate according to established standards. This not only implies that the end products must fully comply with specified requirements; it also means that the production processes themselves must be subject to a series of quality standards. Monitoring of the end product and production process is a vital element of this system. For this reason, each link in the chain is subject to ongoing inspection. Independent organisations carry out these inspections. (Source: Productschap zuivel)

The Foundation for Quality Assurance of Farm Milk in the Dutch Dairy Chain

(Keten Kwaliteit Melk — KKM) was established in 1998 to assure the quality of the milk and ensure that farm operations are conducted with due care and attention. Dairy farms with KKM certification comply with the specified criteria for animal health, welfare, nutrition, nourishment, hygiene and environmental aspects. These criteria are more stringent than those prescribed by Dutch and European legislation. The KKM is a joint initiative of Dutch dairy industries (Productschap Zuivel) and the national dairy farmers association. Quality assurance of milk production through:

- criteria pertaining to the accommodation and care of livestock;


- veterinary drugs administered solely by veterinary surgeons working in strict accordance with the GVP (Good Veterinarian Practice) quality code;

- compulsory registration of all veterinary treatment; - established with periods — the milk of animals that have received medication is

not supplied to the factory; - specified system requirements concerning milking parlour and milk storage

hygiene; - established guidelines for cleaning and disinfecting the equipment; - environmental standards.

The dairy industry uses a universally usable raw material for already its products:

farm milk. Because the milk for several products can be used is it logical that from the dairy industry the guarantee of quality has been always the highest issue. In the course of time the quality standards have been tightened up as soon the need existed. The disbursement of milk to quality and maintaining of the guarantee system has been used by the dairy industry (Source: Productschap Zuivel). Through this working method the dairy industry in the Netherlands has a technically qualitatively good raw material. How is the secured quality of this raw material now obtained? It is the result of milk extraction of several cows over several days of several farms and has been collected by several milk trucks (RMO). These different milk flows meet in one stock tank at the factory. The eventual quality of the raw material is the resultant of all cares at all these steps. Quality is stipulated by the integrated care of several concerns. The whole chain of the milk collection has been reflected schematically in figure 4.

Farm milk RMO (truck) Stock tank dairy factory Figure 4: The chain or the milk

Through this figure we can imagine that the milk quality on the farm is one of the most important links in the chain of dairy production. This is why the dairy factory has the milk quality system. They want to minimise the risk of derogatory milk. The consequences of derogatory milk are very big.

By interviewing the quality expert of Friesland foods we want to try to give a view over the future of quality demands of the processing industry. Because the demands of the dairy factory is for every dairy farmer the standard of milk production.


2.3 Royal Friesland Foods Introduction

Friesland Foods is coming with their own quality system of farm milk. When we know how this new system is going to look like we can give a forecast of what kind of information has to be measured by sensors. The cooperation Friesland Foods is doesn’t go further with the Organisation Certification Dairy farms (OCM), the continuator of the foundation chain quality milk (KKM). Up until now the certification is done by the OCM, in 2006 they start with a new company which takes care of the certification of the supplying dairy farms.

For the future it is important to know what kind of demands the new quality system for farm milk comprises. Because Friesland Foods is partner within the project “Animal in balance”, it is obvious to involve them by this part of our research. Royal Friesland Foods is the largest dairy cooperation of the Netherlands. The main reason that Friesland Foods is changing the quality system is that the KKM is legally not feasible. Trough this system they are losing social carrying capacity of the dairy farmers. This is why they introduce the first of January 2006 the new quality system. The system is not stricter but the control is better. The relation between the controller and the dairy farmer becomes more like with an informing consultant. The demands of the new system are stricter because the legal requiring is not changed. Because there’s a new European food law the responsibility of the quality of milk is now for the dairy farmer. This means that the farmer is responsible for, for example, antibiotics in the milk. In former days the emphasis of the responsibility was more for the dairy factory.

As it looks the quality demands like cell count are not becoming stricter because the legal demands are not changing. They are only changing when the market or the society is demanding it. For the processing industry gives the quality of milk of today not a sign that is has to be more tightened up. The most important item is that animal welfare has to be guaranteed. This is according to Heerink the most difficult demand for the future. The answer to the question how they think about separated milk streams is easy, as long as the market is it not demanding, the processing industry doesn’t introduce it. On the area of sensors has Heerink some interesting ideas. The quality of dairy milk is recently tested on the RMO (milk reception truck). They’ve been introducing it to make the risk of antibiotic residues in the milk tanks at the factory smaller. When the RMO collected the last milk, the fast testing system is going to work underway to the factory. This is a development which can be further developed. An idea is to do this testing on the farm in the milk tank. Maybe it can be combined with a fat and protein measuring. There are a lot of different proteins in the milk. When they know this before collecting, they can collect it separated. This kind of collecting can only when the sensor in the milk tank on the farm is linked with the computer at the dairy factory. Not only the antibiotic and the fat/protein can be measured also the volume in the tank can be measured. The processing industry would like to know how much the milk tanks contain. Especially for the “Rights” farm is there a big variety in volume of the milk tank, this is because the cows are kept on the natural way. This means that almost all of the cows calving in the spring so the production is much higher then when they are dry in the winter. It is also for the


RMO a skilful application to collect as efficient as possible because they know how much milk there exactly is.

Heerink admits that there is a difference between the consumer and a citizen. To anticipate on this difference is difficult. In the future it doesn’t look like that it is going to change. There will always be a difference between a consumer and a citizen even tough it is the same person. When we asked him how they can trace where the milk is coming from, the answer is easy, they can only trace of which batch it’s coming from. They can’t trace it to the specific farmer, this in contrast to the meat industry. It is very important to keep the chain transparent, it is for the citizens very important to know that the dairy industry is busy with their demands. They can keep it transparent stimulating the dairy through making publicity. The last important issue that Heerink is calling is that an integrated exploitation of the information which is collected by all different agencies is not yet done. It would be a very good developing that this is going to happen. Because there is a lot of information collected by agencies likes:

- CR-Delta (milk production, fat/protein and the cell count) - Dutch herd book (genetically construction) - The dairy factory (urea, germs number and the lactose number) - Veterinarians (pattern of medicine use and the type of medicine � for particularly mastitis) - Concentrates factories (content of the roughage, ration composition)

And of course, the farmers themselves (management programs, fertility and disease card. (Source: interview G. Heerink)

2.4 Conclusion Now we know the preconditions and the demands of the processing industry we have

an idea what kind of part the dairy factory plays in the dairy farming. We must not forget that the demands of the dairy factory for every dairy farmer the standard of milk production is. The most important issue is that a management program which collecting information by sensors, can help the farmer to manage his dairy farm. It increases the change to making mistakes. And this is for the dairy factory an important development. Risk reducing on the primary company is for them a positive economical development. In the table below we mentioned the most important points of interest, which are mentioned by the processing industry.

- Volume level measuring on the milk tank - Fat/protein measuring - Antibiotic measuring on the farm - Maybe measuring of different protein chains - New ideas, like separated milk streams, are not introduced through the dairy

factory unless the marked is asking it - Fast testing system for farm milk - Integrated exploitation of information

In the chapter 5 we can see how we can implement those sensors on the three different farms. Not on one specific farm because the production of milk is on each farm the head branch, and must satisfy the quality requirements which are applied then.


3. The demands of animal welfare/health

Introduction

This chapter is the most important part of our research of biosensors in dairy farming. The same as in the previous two chapters is that there’s some overlap between the utility, rights and virtue farm. The difference is that on the “rights” farm animal welfare/health is the main component. The implementing of sensor can be most done on the farm, between the animals. The link with the fictitious farm “rights” is that on this type of farm the rights of people and the animals are standing central. There is a natural balance between the people and the animals on the farm. When we know what the demands of animal welfare and animal health are, we know what kind of information has to be found by sensors.

We have separated this chapter in welfare and health. Because those are two different parts which are definitely linked to each other but has to be described in two paragraphs.


3.1 Animal welfare

3.1.1. Introduction Animal welfare concepts are various, but the commonly known is based on the five freedoms. These five freedoms refer to the freedom of hunger and thirst; diseases; pain and lesions; physical and physiological discomfort; fear, distress and chronic stress; limitations in conducting species-bound behavior. For practical application these freedoms are too vague. Therefore, the biological needs concept has been derived from these five freedoms. The twelve biological needs can be translated into practical parameters. The twelve biological needs are defined in 7 primary and 5 secondary needs (table 2). Cow comfort represents the combination of such parameters in the areas of feed & feeding, barn & barn climatic conditions, housing conditions, and specific behavior aspects. Basically they represent potential risk areas that contribute negatively or positively to the wellbeing, behavior, health, production and reproduction of cattle. Primary biological needs Secondary biological needs Feed and feed-related behaviour Excretion (faeces and urine) Water and drinking-related behaviour Thermoregulation Resting, lying and standing Grooming, comfort behaviour Locomotion (and claw/leg disorders) Reproduction and rearing Social comfort (interactions) Health status Safety (fear, flight behavior, aggression) Table 2. Listing of primary and secondary biological needs (Bracke et al., 2001)

Animal welfare has become an important issue in European livestock farming, in EU politics and in society. Concerns in the general public largely originate from the perception of the intensive livestock production and from different outbreaks of some highly contagious diseases in the last decades like foot-and mouth-disease and BSE. Although the physical distance between livestock farming and urbanized areas is narrowing rapidly, the gap in knowledge about farming procedures and animal husbandry, right or wrong, is increasing. In food chain quality assurance systems compromising livestock production, animal welfare is included as one of four main issues next to food safety and animal health. This implies that also the dairy farmer has an important role in providing the animals with the proper environmental and managerial conditions for optimal wellness and, hence, optimal health and productivity.

When we assign parameters to these clusters of biological needs, we will end up with about 100 different parameters describing the 7 primary biological needs (Lievaart et al., 2005, unpublished). The art is now in translating these biological needs into practical parameters which can be addressed and preferably scored in the field, maybe through using biosensors. The ultimate example of this exercise is in the concept of cow comfort.


3.1.2. Cow comfort As described in the introduction above, we can conclude that cow comfort and the

locomotion of the cow are the most important parts of the welfare of the animals. Trough using sensors for collecting information which is needed to assess the state of art, it can make the management for the farmer a lot easier. Cow comfort is the adequate combination of such elements in the immediate cow’s environment. There are now some institutes who are experimenting with sensors which can measure derogated behaviour that have to be used for controlling the livestock.

Dairy cattle require a comfortable environment in order to enhance their welfare and to maximize production. Since cows spend 40-50% of their day lying down, a comfortable space for lying is particularly important. There are also important health benefits associated with adequate rest. Reduced lying time results in physiological changes, such as a decreased secretion of growth hormone and an increase in circulating levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. Finally, increased standing time on concrete floors increases lameness. In addition to the heath benefits of adequate rest, cows are highly motivated to lie down. For example, after 3 hours away from both food and a place to lie down, cows will chose to lie down instead of feeding. Poor stall design can be one cause of a reduction in lying time. (source: UBC Dairy Centre)

They are now testing new technology that will allow them to perform this type of experiment more efficiently. Electronic sensors have been developed that can be taped to a cow’s leg to continuously record if she is standing or lying. With this technology, we need only download the information from the sensor when the cow comes into the parlour for milking or the concentrate station.(source: www.agsci.ubc.ca/animalwelfare)


3.1.3. Biological needs

As we mentioned earlier, we can make a difference between the primary needs and the secondary needs. The art is now in translating these biological needs into practical parameters which can be addressed and preferably scored in the field, maybe through using biosensors. These practical parameters have to collect the information which is needed to asses the situation. In the next part we described the development of the biological needs which is done until now and what has to be measured in the future.

Primary biological needs

1. Feed and feed-related behaviour: One of the easiest parts that can be measured is the feed intake of the cows. This is already done by the concentrates computers. On the research farms they also are measuring the roughages intake. This is not “yet” done on the normal dairy farms. Lely is developing a feed robot which can feed the cows roughages. By this system the farmer can exactly see how much the cow is taking and so can recognise quickly the derogatory cows. Measuring feed consumption we assuming it that they eating what we supplied them. In the stables of nowadays we can’t measure what the feed intake of every cow is. With the combination of (for example) a pH sensor in the rumen and the information of the feed intake we know if the rumen has enough activity. When this isn’t optimal you can change the ration composition.

2. Water and drinking-related behaviour: The water intake of a high productive

cow is very important and says everything about the situation and the circumstances of the cow. The same as with the intake of feed can the water intake easy be measured, even though it is more difficult because there more than one animal which can drink at the same time. This is why you have to measure in the rumen if how much water the cow intakes. This makes the measuring more difficult.

3. Resting, lying and standing: Until now there is nothing developed to measure

one of these items. Even though they become more and more important. The lying time of a cow is a very curious item. This is because the fluctuation between cows is very big. That means that it isn’t easy to compare them with a standard. The best way is when you now the behaviour of a cow, and see her as an individual, you now when see showing derogatory behaviour. The lying time can be measured by a sensor which can be placed in the “cubicle”. Not only is the lying time important also the place where the cow is standing says a lot of her behaviour. Cows tend to stand more quietly if the front of their body is slightly higher than the rear. This may be because the contents of the rumen are not thrust forward to press upon the cow’s diaphragm, so breathing is easier. A slight upward slope (towards the dairy will encourage cows to face that way. A cow is standing were se feels comfortable. When we can measure this we can have an


idea were the places “in the stable” are where the cows feel uncomfortable. When the farmer knows this he can do something about it, for example a spot where the floor is slippery he can make it rougher.

4. Locomotion (and claw/leg disorders): An important developing is the research

for the locomotion of the cows. Locomotion is one of the parts which are tough to measure. Locomotion scores of individual cows can be used to select cows for hoof examination and to assess the reason for the higher locomotion scores before they become clinically lame. Locomotion scoring is a relatively quick and simple qualitative assessment of the ability of cows to walk normally. Locomotion scores, if collected regularly (e.g., monthly), can be used to identify specific cows at risk of becoming clinically lame for examination of the cause of the lameness. Locomotion scores can also be used to determine the expected milk revenue losses within a dairy or string. That loss can be used as a criteria to determine if general interventions, of either a management or nutritional nature, are warranted. Finally, locomotion score profiles collected regularly within a dairy or string provide a running index of the extent of lameness as well as being an index of the impact of interventions designed to alleviate lameness. Even though, locomotion says a lot of the wellness of the cow. It would be very interesting when the locomotion of the cows can be measured by sensors.

5. Social comfort (interactions): Cows demonstrate ‘following’ behaviour. They

follow their herd mates in activities such as walking, running, feeding and lying down. This motivation to follow others and to maintain visual contact with herd mates can utilised while moving cattle. A cow can show her behaviour the best in the pasture, but true developing of the stables nowadays the possibility of social interactions become more naturally. The social comfort can also be measured the same as the lying times, a sensor have to recognise where the cow is every moment on the day. When you know the normal situation of the individual cow, it’s easy to recognise derogatory behaviour. The sensors have to measure the activity and the places were the cows are, this can be done by a GPS- sensor. When you measure those things every day you get the specific behaviour of the cow. That what we want to know because then we know when she acts different. (source: www.cowtime.com.au/technical/Guidelines)

6. Health status: This part we treating in the paragraph animal health. 7. Safety (fear, flight behaviour, aggression): Cows are afraid of sudden noises

and changes in their routine or normal environment. Past experiences can also teach them to be fearful. Safety is not easy to measure, there is no specific information that has to be collected, to give a judgement. (source: www.cowtime.com.au/technical/Guidelines)

Secondary biological needs

1. Excretion (faeces and urine): Until now there nothing measured “on-farm” which is related to the excretion of the animals. Even though this would be a very


interesting source of information which can be used for the feeding of the livestock. With the new manure legislation it can be a very important development to measure the qualities of the manure. When the compositions of the faeces can me measured, the farmer gets a lot of information available about the working of the rumen and the ration composition.

2. Thermoregulation: In the last years is the climate in the stables very improved.

This is done trough changing the ventilation by making the openings and the cam of the stables bigger. Also is the ventilation regulated by aerators, this is most used on the farms were the cows are the whole years inside. Because the production of the cows is enormously increased the last years, the cows produce more heat. Delaval can offer the farmers an automatically ventilation system for in the stable. This measures the heat and the humidity in the stable en compares it trough changing the openings.

3. Grooming, comfort behaviour: The grooming is done by the farmer. We assume

that he is doing his best to care for his animals. Trough a management system he can control the wellness and behaviour of the cows. There has to be developed a management system which collect and registered all the information that is measured by all sensors in and around the cows. Then it has to combine this “on farm” information with the information of the agencies which are involved and make an attention list.

4. Reproduction and rearing: Reproduction is a hot item o the dairy farms.

Because the production of the cows is increased, the fertility is decreased. There are several methods and ways to control the fertility but it is difficult to have influence on the fertility. A sensor which can measure the ovulation (like the ovatrac) has to be further developed, this would be an important information source. Calf and heifer rearing is a very important issue. A lot is measured, like feed intake and growing. Trough the development of the automatic calf feeder is a lot of information available.


Conclusion animal welfare Measured in the rapport and also in the conversation with Hopster (appendix nr: I) is

that the locomotion of the cows one of the most important issues for now and in the future. There are a few terms that have influence on the locomotion of the animals, mentioned below:

- Barn and barn climatic conditions - Housing conditions - Feed and feeding management - General disease resistance - Specific behavior

Al these terms has to do with cow comfort. These terms are also related to the twelve biological needs, mentioned earlier. From these features addressed in the forenamed 5 clusters appears that farm management plays a pivotal role in achieving optimal cow comfort. When a farmer can optimize these terms, the locomotion of the animals will be improved. Optimizing features cow comfort can be considered basic elements in providing appropriate conditions for achieving cows’ comfort. Cow comfort features are closely related to the biological needs which have been identified. Moreover, it shows that the farm manager plays a pivotal role in this process. Cows’ observational skills are then the subsequent step to evaluate the outcome of adjusting the cows’ environment and the associated cow behavior. Several publications have recently been issued which all address the observation of cow, cow signals (koesignalen J. Hulsen, 2004; Zaaijer & Noordhuizen, 2003). Hopster says it in the interview as, the ideal management system should include that everything that is treated in the book cow signals has to be measured trough sensors. In the following chapters we try to look for how we can implement those sensors and on which type of farm they are important for. Important outcomes

• Lying sensor • Sensor “on” the cow, for measuring standing place, lying time, in the pasture or in

the stable • A further developed management system • Ovulation measuring • Excretion measuring • Behaviour measuring • Locomotion sensor (step length, stability, back bending)

The last item is the most difficult because it is not easy to measure behaviour. The

idea is that when we know the normal activity and behaviour of the cows, we can detect derogated behaviour. When we know this we can through using a management program with all the collected information to make a diagnosis from the cow. In the next paragraph we can se what kind of information we have to collect to make a good diagnosis.


3.2 Animal Health

3.2.1 Problem-area’s In the dairy farming sector there are many different health problems and diseases

in herds on the farms. We can subdivide all the diseases in two groups; farm-related and non farm-related. In the group of farm-related diseases and health problems we can think of claw problems, mastitis, fertility problems and metabolism problems. All these things are giving the most problems to the health of the dairy cattle and also an economical loss to the farmers. So it is very important the farmers can control these problems as good as possible. By the increasing of the average herd size on the farms this is giving problems. Farmers can not control all the problems on the farm and also remind everything. In the future, farmers need systems which can detect health problems or diseases automatically. On this way the farmer only has to check the specific animal if it is really sick or not.

The non farm-related diseases/epidemics are more difficult to detect automatically, but are mostly very contagious and therefore dangerous for every farm. Examples of this diseases are: BVD (Bovine Virus Diarrhea), IBR (Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis), Paratuberculose, Footh and Mouth disease, BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy). It is important that the farmers do everything to keep this out of their farms, in the future is it maybe possible to do this mainly automaticly.

3.2.2 Diagnostics The health of animals has traditionally been monitored by human observation and

in recent years this has been backed up veterinary inspection and by laboratory analysis. This system of monitoring relies on skilled human being available on farms to apply analysis of the health of the animals. By the increasing of the dairy farms and their herd size, there is less time to spend to each animal. People only can see when an animal is sick in the clinical phase. In many times is it too late for therapy or medicines do not work perfect. There is a chance that animals are getting chronically sick, what gives more economic loss.

So it is very important we can detect diseases in a very early stadium, kindest we like to detect a illness between the normal and subclinical stadium. In this stadium there are patho physiological changes in the body/blood of the animal; there are cytokines, bacteria or viruses which make the animal ill. However we need sensors which can “measure” at first place in the subclinical phase and, when it’s possible, in the first (pathogenic) phase.

When we have to detect diseases according to outside changes in behaviour, the diseases are in the clinical phase and the farmer can not occur it. The whole secret is to design a system which can detect diseases in a very early stadium. For example measuring acetone in the breath, pH in the rumen, body temperature


3.2.3 Different phases of a disease When an animal gets a sickness, there are happening things before you can see it

is really sick. So it is good to know exactly what these different phases are, and what’s happening in this phases. In the figure below are the five phases of a disease write down with a short explanation. 1 2 3 4 5 Healthy

Infection comes into the body of the animal

Infection causes a inflammation

Not visible sick

Visible sick

Healthy Pre-pathogenic Pathogenic Sub clinical Clinical Figure 5: The different phases of disease development

The first phase in which we can detect a disease by animals is the pathogenic phase. In this phase the infection causes an inflammation in the body of the animal. When we have the possibilities to detect the infection in the body of the animal, we can work preventive in the field of cattle diseases. Nowadays, we can only detect diseases in the clinical (sometimes sub clinical) phase and we can only treat the animal’s curative. In addition to infectious diseases, there are several non-infectious diseases known in dairy cattle. Examples are ketosis (negative energy balance), rumen activity, milk fever and various claw disorders. For such diseases and their early detection, it would be worthwhile to have heamatochemical and other physical sensors available


3.2.4 Management support, including risk assessment The dairy farmer has to manage his herd as good as possible to get the best

economic results. Now, they get support from management systems, which collect the all information about milk production, reproduction and health of the animals. In the future, it can be possible have more things/sensors which we can couple to the management system. There are a lot of factors which have influence to the health of animals, and these can be a risk to get sick. When we couple a lot of this parameters to the management system, we can make a risk assessment for specific diseases. We can use this to detect a disease in combination with pathogenic sensors, to get the cause of the disease and to treat immediately.

As you can see in the figure 6 below we mentioned some of the risk factors that are causes of certain multi factorial diseases. There are even more risk factors, but fore the idea we mentioned some of the most attentive factors. Most diseases are “multi factorial”, this means that the combination of some of those risk factors can be decisive. For example: Lameness is a multi factorial disease and is directly related to how cows are managed. Some of the contributing factors are nutrition, hygiene, cow comfort, walking surfaces, time spent standing on concrete, hoof health, and claw trimming.

Risk assessment

Feed

Lactation stadia

Floor

ClimateHygiene

Germ

Breed

etc. Feed

Lactation stadia

Floor

Climate

Hygiene

Germ

Breed

etc.

Figure 6: Different risk factors of multifactorial diseases (source: University of Utrecht)

3.2.5 Therapy When we have sensors which can detect diseases in a very early state, the therapy

of diseases is also easier to do. The farmers know exactly which medicine they have to use and in which quantity. For a fast therapy of a disease is it maybe possible in the future to give the animals the medicines automatically. In this way the farmers don’t have to separate the animals by themselves and this produces a labour saving situation. By giving animals medicines automatically we are thinking about a kind of injection robot which can give the animals a injection or mix the medicines trough the food. This robot can be combined with an automatic milking system. This robot will be most significant at the utility farm, because of the production of medical related milk. By this production of this special milk, there have to be taken lot of blood samples. It can also be used for testing medicine- or hormone using at the cows.


3.2.6 Hygiene In dairy farming today are much of the cows kept inside for economical reasons.

In the stables where cows are inside the whole year (utility farm), is it very important to handle a good hygiene in the stable. Bad hygienically circumstances can lead to many bacteria or viruses which can make the cows sick. In the stable systems in the future it can be possible to keep the hygiene under control with sensors, and sort of climate control in a stable. We are also about a system with sensors, which can measure the air humidity and antigens in the air, to detect what’s in the air in a stable. Al these things are mostly related to the utility stable, in the other farm types are the cows mostly outside and are this sensors to expensive

3.2.7 Conclusion In the dairy farming are nowadays some problem areas in the animal health of the

animals. According to interviews with experts we have found the 4 problem area’s claw problems, mastitis, fertility and metabolism problems. So we think it’s a chance for the future to make an automatic disease detecting system for so much as possible. Because the profit farmers can get is to detect diseases in an earlier stadium, preferable in the pre pathogenic phase. So we have to combine sensors of all the 4 problem areas into a computer system which can analyze the data of all the sensors and can give warnings to the farmers if there’s something wrong. More for using at the utility farm, we are thinking of a therapy robot, which can give automatically medicines to the cows and take blood samples of the animals. In the stable of the utility farm we think it’s possible to place sensors which control the climate and the air quality, for example the presence of antigens.


4. Inventory of sensors in dairy farming Introduction

The last years, many research and developments efforts have been done all over the world to develop new sensors en techniques to acquire on-line information from animals and to collect different animal variables. For cows, pigs and chicken several sensors, sensing principles and sensing techniques have been described in literature. For cows there are several sensors described in recent literature to measure deep body temperature, body weight, udder health, oestrus, breath emissions, biting rate in grazing cows and others.

It can be concluded that several efforts are done to develop sensors and sensing techniques for animal variables and this is just a beginning stage. Many new sensing systems will be developed in near future (sensors at the micro- and nano-scale, biosensors, telemetry, etc.). Today the availability of reliable and accurate sensors still is the main bottleneck to apply PLF (Precision Livestock Farming) in practice. The price of this new technology is not a main problem since as shown by many examples (CD player, mobile phone, GPS) the number of produced units is the main factor influencing the price. In this chapter we describe what kind of developments there are and on what kind of areas. We spitted the chapter op in two paragraphs: welfare and health. This is because those are the two items which are important for the dairy farmers and most of the developments are related to these two areas.

4.1. Current state of the art

4.1.1 Welfare Until know in almost nothing measured by sensors, if it concerns animal welfare.

A lot of the sensors are just physical sensors. They only measure for example the weight, the activity or the temperature. This means that nothing is measured like the stress of the cow or were they feel (un)comfortable. For the welfare should this be an interesting development as we mentioned in the paragraph 3.3.

The following literature is about a study which is done for developing a management program for the dairy farmer. We described earlier that a management program which can control all the facets of the whole livestock would be the most ideal developing.

- Systems and Methods for Livestock Management This research is done by a team of researchers from the Institute of Animal Sciences

in the Volcani Center, the Hebrew University, Ben-Gurion University, Tel-Aviv University, researchers from research institutes and universities overseas and, especially, with other research teams in the Agricultural Engineering Institute. The research focuses on both basic physiological research and the development of sensors and methods to enhance efficiency and improve production. A special emphasis is put on research and development on models with the aid of advanced technologies (computer hardware and software) in order to improve production within existing farming conditions in Israel,


with due attention to the farm animals’ wellbeing. Physiological research: Feeding, concentrates (energy and protein) management, and the protein, electrolytes and water metabolism of the dairy cow. Sensors and measuring devices:

- A system for weighing the dairy cow while moving enables very frequent weighing in order to include this parameter in dairy farm management.

- Programmed real-time measurement of milk composition with the aid of biological sensors (biosensors) and spectroscopes (NIR)

- Measurement of the physical condition of dairy cows and examinations of egg fertility for incubation, by means of ultrasound systems.

- Use of individual computer-controlled feed troughs for analyzing their pattern of use, for early assessment of health problems of the dairy cow.

- Sensor for measuring the length of time spent lying down of dairy cows. - A programmed system for measurement and inspection of the feed consumption

of single cows within a feeding group, for controlling nutrition and characterizing eating habits.

Behavioural and farm models for programmed use in the cowshed: Models for programmed and real time use of body weight (measured automatically) for regular farming needs (feeding) and specific diagnostic requirements (fertility, health problems).

- A model for calculating the daily feed intake of each cow of the herd according to daily data on milk yield and composition, and body weight.

- Model for scheduling transfers of cows between feeding groups on an individual basis, according to real-time performance measurements.

- Behaviour model for early warning of standing heat and health problems. - Model for the allocation of feed concentrate and milking frequency under robotic

milking conditions and large farms. - Management of large sheds from the individual cow level up to the strategic

farming level. (source: agri.gov.il, 2001) In appendix number II you can see an example of a of a production system, which is identified by an intensive operation of computer-based process engineering and an intensive herd management.


- Automatic cow health monitoring This cow model shows that clinical and sub-clinical ketosis can be detected

automatically by four methods: - automatic breath sampling to detect acetone concentrations above 8 ppm - individual risk factor analysis using existing herd management records - time series analysis of daily milk yields - regular measurement of ketones and urea in milk combined with fuzzy logic to

simulate human expertise (source: sri)

Figure 7. Precision livestock farming by integration of measured bio responses together with a predictive process model into a model-based monitoring. (Source: International Society for Animal Hygiene - Saint –Malo – 2004)

Bioprocess (animal) Micro-environment Bioresponse

Data collection

Prediction (process model)

On-line monitoring and control

Sensor

Target


4.1.2 Health

On the area of animal health is a lot described in the literature. It is not astonishing because here is the most benefit to gain. A increasing of the health status of the herd gives directly an economical benefit. The last years there is a lot of research done for increasing the healthy of the cows. Most of the developments are known by our constituents. The development that we mentioned below are the most interesting ones and the ones which are can have an enormous influence for the health states of the dairy cows, now and in the future. Some of them are in a very early stadium of developing, like the sensor which can measure the pathogenic bacteria and viruses and the electric biochip of Siemens. The last one is not specific developed for the dairy farming but for the medical industry. But it is a development which can help farmers in the future to detect diseases in the pathogen stage.

- Biosensing techniques for detecting abnormal and contaminated milk They propose a mastitis sensor based on the detection of elevated levels of the enzyme N-acetyl glucosaminidase, released into milk as a result of tissue damage when the cow is resisting a clinical intra-mammary infection. The sensor is an adaptation of a screen-printed carbon electrode. (source: ucce.edu)

- Developing biological sensors for measuring protein and lactose in milk. Measuring the protein concentrations is done in an electrochemical cell that contains iodine/iodide solution and is based on the fact that proteins bind to iodide. The method that was developed for measuring the lactose concentration is based on a sequence of enzymatic reactions that begins with degradation of lactose to glucose and galactose by means of beta-galactose. (source: agri.gov.il, 2001)

- Biosensor to detect oestrus They developed an automated ovulation prediction system for dairy cows. The project will integrate a biosensor with automatic milk sampling and a herd management database. The biosensor will be a screen printed carbon electrode system. (source: sri.uk, 1999)

- Automatic mastitis detection There is a system developed which can detect mastitis for example in the milking parlor. They are trying to develop it further so it can measure the type of bacteria. This would be a very important outcome because then knows the farmer which medicine he has to use. (source: agriholland.nl)

- Progress in the diagnosis of infectious diseases There is a huge variety of veterinary diagnostic tests available, and technological advances mean that new tests are emerging all the time. The main reasons for use of


diagnostic tests in farm animals are for individual animal diagnosis, herd investigations, disease control or disease surveillance. In Great Britain the requirement for farm animals is increasingly for large-scale surveillance programmes. In Britain there is currently a particular emphasis on surveillance of livestock for prevalence of specified food borne zoonoses such as salmonella, E. coli O157. (source: agriculture.de)

- Detection of pathogenic bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa and proteins Researchers at MIT's have created a fast, powerful new sensor that can identify everything from SARS. Called CANARY (Cellular Analysis and Notification of Antigen Risks and Yields), the sensor gives cells that comprise the body's first line of defence against viruses and bacteria the ability to glow like jellyfish in the presence of contaminants. (source:we.mit.edu,2003)

• Biosensor to Determine Lactose Concentration in Raw Milk Biosensors are based on transduction of the chemical, enzymatic or immunological reactions of the analytic material with a ‘biological identifying’ material into measurable signals. The measured signals can be electrical (potential or current), optical (color change in a solution) or mechanical (vibration frequency). The sensors can be very sensitive and very specific (when, for example, antibodies are used). The lactose concentration in milk is between 4 and 5% by weight and measuring it is important from the point of milk quality and disease detection. (source: adsa, 2000)

• Strategies for avoiding health problems of farmed animals In the animal production it is too late to undertake actions first when clinical signs of disease have developed. Therefore, a health control scheme should be established that continuously focuses on disease prevention in order to avoid health problems. Appropriate measures can be summarised as follows:

- Profound knowledge about and proper diagnosis of infectious diseases - Control, reduction or elimination of non-epizootic diseases on all levels of animal production, e.g., combat sources of infection, decrease of exposure, optimising hygiene, prudent use of antimicrobial treatment - Improve host resistance by e.g., breeding, optimal nutrition, optimal housing and ventilation, good management reduction of stress - Boost Immunity by e.g., vaccination, good maternal immunity, control of immunosuppressive diseases

(source:agriculture.de)

• The development of an electric biochip For the first time, Siemens has developed an electric biochip that enables faster, simpler and more cost-effective analysis of pathogens. In the first place is this development for the medical industry, but in the article they mentioning that is could be a very interesting


developing for the agriculture. Though this sensor they can detect a disease in a very early stage before the sub-clinical stage. (source: siemens, 2004)

• Development of antigen measuring A few years ago there was a small group of researchers of the Wageningen

Unisversity which had developed a system for measuring the type of antigens by plants. They tried it also with animal antigens, to their astonishment worked this also perfectly. When they tried to look for financial partners and a company from the medical industry, they run op to a lot of set back. The industry was against the developing of such a system because it has an enormous impact on their medicine sales. The whole development turned out to nothing. The development of such a system would be the outcome for our problem areas. (source: Professor Noordhuizen)

4.2. State of the art at Delaval Our partner of the project Delaval in Sweden has his own research and development

department. Delaval is very innovative with new developments, they are always looking for new ideas for the dairy farm sector. During our visit at Delaval we have brainstormed about the applying of kinds of sensors in the last years. Through this brainstorming we can have an idea of what is possible for now and in the future. These following research developments have done by Delaval in early stage and there are some which they are working on.

• Milk temperature • Milk conductivity • Catalase, Nagase, ATP and pH � these have been measured by sensors • Milk Impedance

- bacteria • Animal activity � one of the best sensors for heat detection • Electronic nose, later maybe electronic tongue

- acetone - mastitis

• Milk composition - photometry

• Direct Cell Counting (DCC) � digital microscope, will be further applied • Progesterone test � this is excellent but has to be “online” • Water consumption � is very easy….and depends of the temperature of the

environment • Milk recording, milk meters • Pulse tester • Milk plant monitoring (before milking checking the machine) • Cow weighing � just for fun and it is to expensive • Milk viscosity


• Body temperature � implanted transponders • Automatic Identification � has to be done • Teat Cleanness • Teat temperature • Teat thickness � interesting for “over” milking • Heart rate monitoring � it doesn’t change very much • Concentrate and forage consumption • Watch dog � milk cooling tank security • Walk trough cow scale � this is interesting !!! • Bolus transponders � measuring pH in the rumen or body temperature

* A big problem of a bio-sensor is that when they are used ones they get a “film” on it, and has to be cleaned before using again. Biosensors they have to be or automatically or practical!!! Herd sizes bigger than 60 dairy cows is the break-even point of remembering everything from the cows. So farmers who are bigger than 60 cows have to work with some kind of a management system to keep everything under control. Everything that will be developed must have some economical profits, the reason to do it, is that the farmer can earn more money!! Delaval wants to develop a complete system which can collect all the information measured trough sensors.

4.3. Future perspectives/conclusion The development of sensors and computer systems goes very fast, things that now

seem to be impossible, are maybe reality over twenty years. In the 80’s nobody believed there should be a milking robot about 20 years, but nowadays the robot is already working perfectly. With all the computer technology in the world, the inventions on the area of precision livestock farming are also going very fast. In this way, the automatic monitoring of farm animals during their life is approaching fast.

In the future there is a need of sensors which can measure things in pathogenic circumstances. This is the only way to detect diseases faster, than what’s possible at this moment.

In chapter 3 we have found problem area’s in the field of animal health; these are mastitis, claw problems, fertility problems and metabolism problems. In the field of milking technology and the processing industry there’s a need, for a sensor which can detect for example the milk composition, antibiotic warning system. It would be a good development that there’s coming a system which is bringing al the information that the farmer gets and the information of the veterinary and also information that they have at the milk factory together. For animal welfare are there also some interesting things which can developed further. In this field we can think for example of: lying sensor, GPS sensor on the cow, ovulation measuring, excretion and behaviour measuring.

Many producers of milking systems have already developed a lot of this sensors which are needed in the future. Another point of discussion is placing sensors in the body of the cow. Is this socially justified or not? When there is coming more interest for some sensors in the future, or when producers know which sensors are needed in the future, they can specially work on these sensors and develop them further. For almost all the


sensors that we described, the technology is already so it’s almost possible to make all these sensors.

A very important chance is the coupling of all the information that even now already available is for the dairy farmers. In this way we can think of information from the milk factory, herd book, milk production registration, veterinary, milking machine dealer and the management system of the farmer himself. In this way the farmers becomes a lot of information about his herd and it can save some sensors. The information is faster, because everything is measured on the farm so it is faster available for the dairy farmer. Trough this, the farmer has the possibility to intervene earlier.

We can conclude that there are a lot of sensors which are developed (or almost developed) by milking machine producers or research centres. In principle are all the technology’s that we need for the sensors available, but producers have to know which sensors are needful for the future. Only then, they can make the sensors affordable and usable for the dairy farming sector.


5. The trends for using sensors in the future Introduction

This chapter is about how and we what kind of sensors and in what kind of period of time, will be used on the three farms mentioned in the project “Animal in Balance”. We try to give a vision on the three farms. This vision will be based on the short term (5-10 years) and on the long term (>20 years). For the short term we can see with what kind of sensors they are developing on this moment, so we can see what it will be in the next years. For the long term it will be a forecast of what kind of information we (the dairy farmers) have to know to manage a modern dairy farm. We don’t have to see if it possible, because you cant now how fast the automation will be. This forecast give the industry, like Delaval, an idea of what the developments should be and which sensors have to be (further) developed.

In the project there are several practical farmers who are joining “Animal in balance”. We have brainstormed with three of those farmers about the project, the future and the use of sensors. Through this “interview” we try to give a vision of the terms that the sensors will be applied and on what kind of area’s they are. The farmers can give us their opinion of what the sticking points are on the farms. They have also their own ideas over the practical handiness of the three types of farms.


5.1. Utility/Profit

5.1.1. Short term For this type of farm we visit Walter Gerritsen, dairy farmer in Beek, near the

German border. In principal has every normal dairy farmer a utility farm. The difference is that when they build a stable ore invest in automation, it is an investment for the next 20 or 30 years. The problem is that the speed in developing on the normal dairy farms is to slow. When a farmer builds a new stable he will use the newest techniques, but when there’s developed a new sensor a year later he can’t buy it because it is to expensive. The utility farming for producing milk for medical use or for separated milk streams for the processing industry will be for only a small percentage of the dairy farmers. These farms will be full of sensors and can be maybe placed on an industry area. They will invest in the newest developments but it has to deliver a increasing of the economics, as usual. Otherwise it is not attractive to do.

Also this farm was in the first phase of the applying of the specific farm type “Utility”. This is the farm were the need of using of sensors will be the biggest. Although like on the picture in figure 6 (chapter 6) will everything be automated. The farmer will be a manager of a high-tech farm.

When they began to brainstorm about the utility farm in the future they started with the most extreme ideas, like genetically modification cows and that everything would be measured trough sensors, in and around the cow. This is maybe possible when they can produce milk with such properties that it can be used in the pharmaceutical industry they will pay that extra money.

The trends on the short term will be to apply the new development on the farm. The farmers have also to look after if there’s some demand for the processing industry to produce milk with certain properties. When they can get a contract with a dairy factory or with a company of the pharmaceutical industry, they can start with to change their farm in to a high-tech farm.

The trends are:

- Searching for companies from the industry (like Bayer) or a dairy factory that will pay for milk with certain specific properties

- Following the development of the automation and the development of new sensors and computer systems

- Try to beat up the speed of developments on the farm - Looking for opportunities to produce milk with a specific composition


5.1.2. Long term

We think that it in the future will be social justified to place sensors in the cow. Certainly when they are producing milk that has, for example a positive influence of the threatening of cancer. The problem is now that the legislation at this moment now the sticking point is for new developments. Through this legislation it is difficult to give future perspectives. To say what the trends are over 20 years it is better to not look if it is socially justified or not because we don’t know if that counts for over 20 years. That’s why we keep it a little extreme. When we don’t do this it’s not very attractive because then is the utility farming almost the same as low-cost price farming. The farm can be placed on an industry area and is not assessable for the citizen. They can watch how it is going by means of a webcam. The climate in the stable will be full regulated by a management computer. The applying of the sensors are named in chapter 6.

The trends on the long term correspond with the trends on the short term. It depends of the supply and demand of the processing industry and the medical industry. There is a great opportunity for this type of farming, but is not possible for every farmer in the Netherlands. But that counts for all three farms, not every farmer can apply one the three farms because otherwise there are coming too many of them. The trends are:

- We think that the utility thoughts are going back to the low- cost price farming - Genetically modificated cows are allowed only when you can show if it is for the

increasing of the public health - The legislation (socially justifying) will be widened to make it possible to work

with GM- cows - Sensors in and around the cow shouldn’t be a problem in the future - For a few farmers will the utility farm a be chance, but not every farmer can

deliver and produce special milk because than will the supply bigger than the demand

- To keep transparency for the citizens they can watch how it is going by means of a webcam

- Everything is measured by sensors, which will be named in chapter 6 - There will be a separating in the “Utility” farmers, on one side the farmers which

are producing for the medical industry and on the other side the farmers who are milking at the low-cost price


5.2. Rights/People

5.2.1. Short term For this type of farm we interviewed Harm Ziel, dairy farmer in Ens. The trends

in the first 5 till 10 years are also on this farm not very big because this farm is also in the developing phase of the “Rights” (nature) farm. What the trends are is difficult to say. When the realisation is becoming a fact than will the use of sensors play a main role. Till that time the farmer will look for how he wants to milk and feed the cows. In that stadium he can think what kind of information, collected by sensors, he needs to keep the management of the “Rights” farm under control. Because the idea of the rights farm is to produce a durable product for the processing industry, the quality of the milk and the proportionally of the milk contents are the most important sources of information which has to be collect by sensors. The trends are:

- Searching for a durable cow which can turn grass into milk, and can walk most time of the year outside

- Looking for a perfect location to start up the “Rights” farm (perfect circumstances for grazing the cows and perfect location for recreation)

- In the starting phase will be the information of sensors very important to make a good start

- Further developing and implementing of the GPS- sensor so you know what the activities of cows are (also in the stable); moreover GPS can be used to know their specific behaviour

5.2.2. Long term On the long term this type of farming will need a lot of sensors. This is because

the cows are walking most of the time outside. They will be milked and feed in the “open air” so for the citizens is it very transparent how it is going on the farm. Because they can see how it is going, they will buy the product on the farm. The milk that is produced on the Rights farm will be used to make a product for the dairy company. The product that will be produced has to be an acid product, this is better to deliver to the processing industry. So knowing this we can imaging that the udder healthy is an very important issue on the farm because the milk has to be of an excellent quality. The trends are:

- Realising a “Rights/Nature” farm - Producing a natural and durable product which can be delivered to the

dairy factory - Developing a milking and feeding system for the grazing dairy cows - Quality and milk contents measured by sensors - Choosing a milking and feeding system outside so the citizens can see

how the cows are fed and milked


5.3. Virtues/Planet

5.3.1. Short term For this type of farm we interviewed Berend Jan Wilms, dairy farmer in

Schoonebeek. This farmer started with the project in the scope of the problems with the situation of the estates in his region. Through oilfields in his village, farmers have problems to get enough land nearly to the stable and have a rentable farm. So this is a chance to combine a couple of farms and start one big farm in a new place. For example 4-5 dairy farmers and 2 arable farmers, the farm has to be self provided. The community plays a important role in the farm, citizens have to walk in the farm and can do easy jobs on the farm in their spare time. So the Virtue farm has to be very transparent and accessible. The main points of this farm are: regional production with a own milk factory, hi-tech farming, user friendly and easy to handle machines (for consumers). By hi-tech farming on this farm, most of the sensors on the short term will be installed on the areas of animal health and animal welfare. Because on this area’s are the most problems and implicating this sensors will be economically attractive. One of the first things that will be implemented is the cow walking through scale because on this field are a lot of problems with the dairy cattle. On the field of milking technology, it is still not clear if there is coming a milking robot on this farm. On this type of farm there’s a group of 5-6 farmers, and they have to divide their labour.

In the first phase (short term) of this farm there is a lot do, to get everything up to date on the field of the welfare and health of the cows. The farmers also need a few years to come on 1 line, then on the long term they can start with an own milk factory and milking cows through guests on the farm.

5.3.2. Long term On the virtue farm will most of the sensors be implicated at the long term (>10

years). In the future this farm will start an own milk factory, so the milk of the farm has to be of a high quality and errors in production process are not lawful. In this way, on the farm are sensors needed which can check the quality of the milk, before it’s coming in to the milk factory. We are thinking of sensors for checking the cell count, fat and protein %, and antibiotic of the milk. Citizens, who are visiting the farm and will do simple jobs on the farm, have to do this very easy. For this activities there has to com e very easy milking machine or robot which can be used/activated by citizens, so they can milk a cow by themselves or looking to it.


6. The applying of sensors on the three farms withi n the project Introduction

In the chapter before we described on what kind of range and what the trend are on the three farm of using sensors in the future. In this chapter we try to describe what the applying will be on the three farms. For this knowledge we used the information we get from the three practical farmers which we have interviewed. We did this interviewing to form a picture of how the farmers applying the three imaginary farms on their own farm. Now we have the information of both sides (the theoretical and the practical side) of the project. By interviewing the farmers we get a clear view of what the applying will be on the specific farms. This chapter is not only based on the interviews, it is also how we think how the applying of sensors will be in the future.

6.1 Virtue

Figure 5: “Virtue/community farm”

When the developing of the Virtue farm is in the phase that they are building a new stable, sensors will play an emphatic role in this specific type of farm. The stable will look like a high tech stable, but not as specific as the Utility farm. The main objective is to co-operate with a few dairy- and arable farmers and trying to get the ideas on one line. The ultimate outcome would be to form one big farm which can deliver an


addicted value for all the farmers, as you can see in figure 5. Through this size of farm they can have some benefits, like the purchases of fodder and to divide the work on the farm, so that every one worked as efficient as possible. Only then the farmers can have the benefits which they deserved.

The applying of sensors on this type of farm will be when they start to build a new stable. In that stadium will be the sensors applied on the farm, not earlier. So on the long term the sensors going to play an important role on the farm. Not only to guarantee the quality of the milk and the welfare and health, like on the other farms, but also to ascertain the production of the “region product”, this is maybe a further perspective. Most of the sensors will be applied in the stable, because the cows are most of the time inside. Trough the joining of the different farmers the size is becoming that big that they can’t have the cows in the pasture. The claw conditions of the cows and their locomotion will be a very important issue. This is why we expect that a lot of the sensors will be used to keep this under control. We want to apply the cow walk trough scale to measure the pressure points in the claw. Also the lying sensor and the rumen activity sensor will be applied on this type of farm. For the rest will the applying of the sensors look like how it will be on the “Utility” farm, these two farms matching together on the area of sensors.

6.2 Utility

Figure 6: “Utility/profit farm” To get a picture, how sensors can be implemented on the practical utility dairy

farm, we interviewed a farmer who’s busy with the project. In the text below we give an explaining about how we think, sensors will be applied in the utility farm in 2025.


One of the main reasons for starting an utility farm principle is the possibility to produce milk for special applications. For this kind of milk, maybe for medical use, there’s a need to a genetically manipulated cow. In this cow has to be placed a lot of sensors to guarantee the quality of that pharmaceutical milk. Because the cow is producing high quality milk, the udder health has to be at a very high level. So there are sensors needed which can control the whole process in the udder of the cow. In the cow or in the milking machine have to placed sensors which measure cell count, milk composition � lactose, CLA, fat and protein, hormones (for hormone treatments for medical use) and antibiotics. A very important sensor on the edge of udder health is a sensor which can detect what kind of bacteria the cause is of the mastitis or the high cell count.

Milking and feeding of the cows will be automated on the virtue farm, and the farmer is a manager who can manage at minimum 150-200 cows. Milking is possible by a “traditionally” milking robot or a robot arm which can be placed in a milking parlour.

On the utility farm is the feeding of the cows also a very important item. Because of the production of very high quality milk (and milk with different composition), the food has to be of an excellent high quality and very clean of for example toxins or other pollution’s. In the feed robot has to be sensors which can control/measure the feed values, ration composition, gives a warning for toxins and show the stuck of the raw materials. The metabolism process in the cow is controlled by a rumen sensor which measures the pH, activity, and digestion etc. in the rumen of the cow. Through all this sensors the farmer can control the feeding and milking process by his computer. At this way you can steer the composition of the milk by the feeding robot and sensors in the milking equipment.

The stable of the utility farm includes also a lot of sensors to control the health and welfare of the cows and the climate in the stable. Because the stable can be a factory hall and maybe placed on an industry area, the climate can be controlled with aerators and a climate computer. The air which is coming in to the stable has to be cleaned of antigens and viruses. This has to be controlled by a sensor and if needful, the air has to be filtered and purified.

On the edge of animal welfare and health are the most important items (we earlier described in chapter 3) claw problems, udder health, metabolism process and fertility of the cows. We also described sensors for udder health and metabolism processes in the text up here. So we have to describe sensors on the field of claw problems and fertility to have a complete cover about all the things happening in and outside the cows. For monitoring claw problems, we are thinking about a cow weighing scale which measures the pressure on each of the claws of the cows. At this way the farmers can detect for example an ulcer in the claw very early and treat immediately.

To improve the fertility status of the herd on the farm, it’s important the heat detection is going to be almost automatically. A farmer cannot control the fertility of his whole herd of 150-200 cows every day. The activity of cows can be measure by a GPS-bolus which can define the place of the cow, body temperature and the hart beat of the cow. If this bolus can communicate with the computer just like all the other sensors on the farm, the heat detection will be much easier for the farmer en gives better results. At this point we come back by the management system which has to develop. This computer system has to couple all the sensors on the farm and also to all the information of the milk


factory, veterinary and herd book. In this way, there’s more information available for the farmer. The main point is that the computer can couple all this data and translate it to an easy attention list which the dairy farmer can use every day.

In the future the real “Utility Farm” will be available for a small group of farmers, because the production of pharmaceutical milk is a small market. On this farms are all the sensors applicable, because they are needed (and paid) by the industry. All the others who want to develop their farm into Utility, will only install sensors on places which are very profitable. Farmers, who don’t have the possibility to produce milk for special use, can only survive to produce milk for a low cost price. 6.3 Rights

Figure7: “Rights/nature farm” According to our research and interviews with farmers and experts we have a few important outcomes where sensors can be placed. These sensors we explain below. First we want to develop a GPS- sensor so you know what the activities of cows are and what their behaviour is. It is possible to combine this in a bolus in the rumen of the cow. This bolus can measure the body temperature, metabolism process, it can contain a GPS-sensor and it’s for identification of the cow. In this way we need no longer the yellow earmarks in the cows, what’s positive for the welfare and image of the dairy farming sector. Because the cows are outside as much as possible, it’s more difficult for the farmer to keep the control over his herd. With this bolus which is communicating


with the computer of the farmer, he gets a lot of information about his cows and can manage them easier.

For the rights farm, there has to be developed a milking and feeding system for the grazing dairy cows outside so the citizens can see how the cows are fed and milked. This system is one of the important things of the farm, because the cows are almost every time outside and this is the place where they come twice a day. In this system (milking robot) where the cows will be milked and feed, have to placed sensors for cell count, fat and protein %, and possible antibiotics and cow weight. This milking robot in a unit inside the pasture can combined with a feeding robot, with the possibility for giving medicines to the cows. The feeding robot inside the unit of the milking robot is a station which can mix a ration for the cows from different raw-materials.

Also this milking- and feeding robot is coupled to the computer of the farmer and with the “GPS-bolus”. When a cow isn’t coming in the robot, the farmer can see where the cow is and possible he changes the feeding ration of the cow or gives medicines to it. Only thing the farmer has to do is, control the herd once a day and fill the feeding robot. The rest of the day there is time for other work, like processing his milk to special products. Citizens can walk into to the milk unit and can see how the milking and feeding process is working.


7 Conclusions and recommendations Introduction

We have split up the conclusions and recommendations for the project “Animal in balance”, DeLaval Company and our own visions and (overall) recommendations. We did this because the advice for DeLaval is different than the advice for the project. The advice for the project includes some further research. For DeLaval it is more on the area of the development of sensors and new techniques.

We chose to write the paragraph 7.3 because during our research we got ideas concerning the application of sensors and new future perspectives.

7.1 Conclusion and recommendations for “Animal in b alance”

- Further research for the technical specifications of the sensors, we only gave the areas where they have to be implemented en where they’re needful.

- To say what the real applying of the sensors will be, the farmers have to be in a further stadium of the development of the typical farm.

- When the farmers know what the concept and the development of the stable layout is, they can think more concrete of how the sensors can be implemented

- The combination of our research with the two others who are researching how the stables going to look like on the three farms, can give a more clear view of how the bio sensors will and can be applied.

- For the consumers is the transparency of the producing of dairy products the most important demand, this is for the project a good outcome. The three farms have to satisfy to this demand.


7.2 Conclusions/Recommendations DeLaval

The advice for DeLaval is most on the area of developing. There are a lot of new ideas which they already working on but there are also some new ideas which are interesting to look at. It is not that our outcomes are the only ones but it give an idea were the sensors will be need, at least on which kind of area. It is not new that the problem areas like the mastitis, the claw condition, locomotion, and the fertility of the cows are the most important to look after in the future. But is shows again that there’s a need for a good management system which is feed from information that is measured through sensors.

- There must be developed a sensor which can measure the contents of the blood and the presence of antigens. When this is possible we can intervene before the sub-clinical phase. The so called pathogenically phase

- Problem areas coming from the animal health/welfare� udder healthy, claw condition/locomotion, fertility

- Developing of a milk and feed robot which can stand in outside in the pasture � “Rights” farm

- Milk tank with volume measuring + composition of the milk and a antibiotic warning system � on the “Utility” farm per cow in the milking parlour

- Further developing of the ‘walk trough’ scale - Injection robot for giving medicines, hormones and treating of sick cows - Developing of a bolus which can measure the pH, the temperature and the

rumen activity - Developing of a umbrella management program which can couple all

information and gives a warning signal when there’s something wrong � keep it practical with for example a green, orange or red light

- Lying time sensor, on the cow or in the cubicle


7.3 Overall recommendations

In this paragraph we mentioning some new ideas that we say that they are becoming very important for the dairy farmers in the future. Not all the items are about sensors, there are also some new visions and technical ideas of the applying of them. We also give a few future visions, how we think that it should be.

- Nano technology can be interesting to be applied in dairy farming - Bolus in the form of a mini submarine, it must have an self-cleaning

functioning to avoid the arise of a bio-film - There’s a need for research to ensure that a chip remains his place in the

body of the cow - There going to be genetically modified cows the future (especially on the

Utility farm) - There’s a need of virus detector applied in for example the aerator in the

stable. This detector gives a sign when the quantity antigens are coming above a certain standard

- a GPS sensor has to be placed on the cow so you can trace her also in the stable

- With the developing of new sensors and techniques they must not consider with the legislation of nowadays, this legislation is to obstructing. The legislation is changing over time

- The milk- and feed robot on the “Rights” farm must look like a hover craft, than you don’t have any problems with the carrying capacity of the soil and the traction of the robot � the cows walking most time of the year outside

- In the future will the applying of sensors in the cow socially justified if you can show that is giving a contribution to the public health

- The knowledge is already so far that they can measure the type of antigens, the resistance of the medical industry stops further developments (there are some patents which stops further developing of such a system). This is very depressing and shouldn’t happen.

- For the vision on the future over twenty years we must get rid of the traditional stable idea


Literature list Internetsites: http://www.agri.gov.il/AGEN/Reports/Maltz001.html http://www.sri.bbsrc.ac.uk/images/posters/cowhealth.pdf http://www.agri.gov.il/AGEN/Reports/Zion001.html http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/datastore/detailreport.cfm?usernumber=7&surveynumber=183 http://www.sri.bbsrc.ac.uk/news/autumn99/biosensors.htm http://www.agriholland.nl/info/info_copyright.html http://agriculture.de/acms1/conf6/ws5bprogress.htm http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2003/sensors.html http://www.adsa.org/jds/abs/2000/sep1939.htm http://agriculture.de/acms1/conf6/ws5asum.htm http://www.siemens.com http://www.date.hu/efita2003/centre/pdf/1001.pdf Books, reports and articles: Aarts en Hanning, 2001, “Hoe oordelen we over de veehouderij?” Den Haag: Rathenaau instituut. Berckmans, Daniel, 2004, “Automatic on-line monitoring of animals by precision livestock farming, Leuven: laboratory for agricultural buildings research. Brand, A., J.P.T.M. Noordhuizen and Y.H. Schukken,1996, “Herd Health and Production Management in Dairy Practice” Wageningen: Wageningen Pers,. “Consumententrends 2003”. Rotterdam: EFMI “Cows, people, facilities” Milking Time Magazine, edition 43, page 26 to 33, februari 2004. Godijn en Aarts, 2005, “ Schaalvergroting en duurzame landbouw: een combinatie met toekomst?”. Den Haag: LEI. Hogeveen en Ouweltjes, 2002, “Sensors and management support in high technology milking” Wageningen: Wageningen University. Hulsen, J., 2004, “Koesignalen” praktijkgids voor koegericht management.Zutphen: Roodbont Uitgeverij. Ruegg and Reinemann, 2002, “Milk quality and mastitis tests” Madison: University of Wisconsin,.


Schenk, Siem Jan, 2003, “Bouwen aan vertrouwen” Van gezond rundvee tot veilig voedsel. Den Haag: LTO rundveehouderij,. Sijtsema, Godijn, Wolf, Aarts, Tacken en Verstegen, 2005, “Groot, groter, grootst,…..duurzaamst!?”, Den Haag: LEI,. Interviews: G. Heerink, manager raw materials Friesland Foods, H. Hopster, lector animal welfare Van Hall Instituut, B.J. Wilms, dairy farmer in Schoonebeek, H. Ziel, dairy farmer in Ens, W. Gerritsen, dairy farmer in Beek,


Appendices

I Conversation with Hans Hopster

We had on June the 8th an interview with Hans Hopster. He is lector of animal welfare of the Van Hall Institute. How do you think of the placing of sensors in side the cows, how far are the development in this area and how far can they go? Legally it is allowed to do two interventions. This is only for the identification of the cow. So it means that when they have two ear marks, it isn’t allowed to do more. They are busy with a system of identification with a combination of one ear mark and a stomach bolus. To implement a sensor inside the cow the biggest problem is that it is not socially justified. But when it’s possible then a sensor that measures the pH of the rumen would be a very handy appliance to look after the health of the animal. You can also look for implementing sensors around the cow instead of inside. For example an electronic nose can be also placed in the concentrate station instead of in the nose of the cow (aceton in breathing air). Biosensors, for physiological processes depend on break-troughs of the technology. Will the implementing of sensors be on the herd level or the individual cow? Welfare will be always measured on individuals. When you measure the conditions of the individual cow then you can see at the herd. Animal welfare is a difficult part to measure, how do you know when a cow is on his easy going? The behavior of a cow says everything, every cow has his own behavior pattern. Now is it the big challenge to combine all these patterns. When you know exactly the patterns of the cow then you know when the cow shows derogatory behaviour. The behaviour of the cows is strongly related to the surrounding variables like the climate in the stable and the stress and space in the stable. When you know the behaviour of the individual cows you can make a herd or group summary. Do you expect that the legal requirements will be tightened up in the future? There is a new development of the council of Europe (this is an advice organisation of 46 countries in and outside Europe) that they are busy to tighten up the legal demands. This is for the legislation for housing requirements. This is a small step and takes years before we going to see it in the daily legislation. But the fact that they are busy with says enough about the situation. When we talk about legal requirements is there also a hot item about keeping the cows permanently in the stable. In other countries like Finland en Sweden they introduced a new system for grazing the cows. The farmers have to let the cows outside for a few ours a day, in Switzerland cows must be pastured for at least 120 days a year. Hopster thinks that this will be not applied for the Dutch farmers. They have not that kind of influence and not enough reasons to do that. In the Netherlands they have formed a group of researchers of the ASG (Animal Science Group) and some of LTO. They have the target to decrease the clinical mastitis problem in 5 years with 50%.


II Model of an automation program


III Interview questions

- Hoe bent u met het project koe en ondernemer in balans in contact geraakt?

- Hoe moeten we het ons voorstellen om zo’n bedrijfstype toe te passen? - Wat is het bedrijfstype dat u toepast, en waarom dit type bedrijf? - Wat is het verschil in boeren, voor dat u met he project bezig was en

nu? - Hoe concreet bent u er mee bezig? - Brengt het extra werkzaamheden met zich mee?

- Wordt het bedrijf sterk veranderd qua bedrijfsvoeri ng en uitrusting? - Hoe denkt u over het toepassen van sensoren op uw bedrijfstype? - Welke gebieden zullen volgens u belangrijk zijn/worden om in de

toekomst met sensoren te controleren? - Wat is wenselijk op het gebied van automatisering op uw bedrijf in de

toekomst? - Hoe ziet u uw bedrijf in 2020? - Hoe ver denkt u door te gaan met het toepassen van het bedrijfstype?

Documents

Graduate study “Sensors in Dairy farming - AgroCenter.nl Research Bio... · - “Graduate study “Sensors in Dairy farming” - Foreword/preface We would like to thank the owner