McKinsey encourages dairy industry to 'embrace digital'
Act quickly to secure an in-person ticket to Precision Dairy Conference
A recent report by respected business research firm McKinsey and Company recommends the dairy industry “embrace digital as a tool to solve problems and capitalize on opportunities.” The New York-based firm recently interviewed dairy processor executives to determine their outlooks for the industry and to determine how the COVID-19 pandemic was impacting the industry.
They found the following:
“Executives are looking to digital and analytics as tools to address consumer-facing and operational opportunities,” the report says.
Ten percent of those interviewed were using technologies that target an end-to-end value chain for better visibility, planning and control. McKinsey’s reporting also uncovered:
“In the next one to two years, 80 percent of executives report plans to deploy new digital and analytics.”
Just like the data situation on-farm, executives said they are drowning in data, and they want more meaningful insights from the data that is being collected.
Read more from the report here.
New milking pulsator a 'quantum leap' forward
A New York-based company that claims it has the “only humane way to milk an animal with a machine“ has recently been awarded for its most recent innovation. LR Gehm, LLC is the recipient of a 2021 American Society of Agriculture Biological Engineers AE50 Award for its Trident Pulsation system. Data from dairy farms using this product was provided as evidence of the product’s performance.
This new product is the culmination of several years of development and introduces several new, patented technologies. A few of the new features include a real-time integrated functional performance monitor, a feature to ensure proper liner attach followed by a brief stimulation period, a positive pressure fresh air system to optimize liner performance that allows for full liner closure even with no vacuum in the liner and a unique air/vacuum action to reduce/prevent the pull of liquid up into the pulsator in the event of a liner failure.
Learn more about this new technology here.
A path to insight: The difference between knowledge, data and information
Farmdoc Daily recently reviewed the differences between knowledge, data and information. I thought the authors of the paper, Michael Boehlje and Michael Langemeier, did a good job of differentiating these ideas.
Essentially, they argue that knowledge generally comes from the rules, concepts, principles or models of what we know about a topic. Data then are the specifics related to some aspect of that knowledge. Information is generated when knowledge and data are combined.
While the article doesn't specifically talk about insights, I think you could go one step further and say that insights are the next progression of information. That step occurs when information becomes actionable or predictive and suggests what to do next based on the information that has been analyzed.
As has been shown before, what livestock owners really want is insights and tools to enhance their own human intuition.
Thus, it can be helpful when assessing a cow technology to first determine how developed is each step in the path toward intuition. Then a producer can better decide if a company's new technology can adequately augment his or her own intuition.
Consider these questions:
Is the problem the technology solves well documented by science (knowledge)?
Can sufficient evidence be collected reliably on-farm in a way that paints a clear picture of what's going on (data)?
If yes, then is the outcome actionable when computed as timely as possible (information)?
Finally, does the information when stacked on top of itself, generate useful trends and clear, proactive steps for a producer to take to affect the trajectory of the information (insight)?
In my opinion, when a technology gets to this point, it can create immense value because it enhances human intuition.
Read more about information technology and value creation here.
Agenda and registration for Precision Dairy Conference now available
The next big cow tech conference this year is the the Precision Dairy Conference in Bloomington, Minnesota, June 22-23.
The agenda includes keynotes such as “Why is automation needed in TMR feeding?” and “Technology: The key to clearing the high hurdles.” Start-up cow technology companies and farmers using new cow technologies will participate in breakout sessions.
You won’t want to miss this event. Learn more or get registered here.
(NOTE: Due to social distancing requirements, only 30 of the limited in-person registrations are left. Act now to secure a spot and ensure full access to the conference and its networking opportunities.)
Profit projections from ZISK
Projected profitability for two dairy herd sizes have WAVERED since the beginning of April in profit projections from ZISK.
ZISK is a profit-projection smartphone app that tracks individual dairy farm profitability based on current CME board prices. Projections for a 1,000-cow dairy producing an average of 80 pounds of milk per cow and a 2,500-cow dairy producing an average of 85 pounds of milk per cow are provided.
12-month dairy farm profit projections (as of May 13, 2021):
1,000-cow dairy = $334,649 (DOWN about $56,275 since the beginning of April)
2,500-cow dairy = $1.439 million (DOWN about $123,500 since the beginning of April)