Satellites to weekly monitor health of U.S. organic grazing pastures
Activity monitoring data to be used to determine if cows are 'happy'
Co-op to use satellite technology to improve grazing
Organic Valley is launching a pilot program this year that uses satellite photography to measure pasture health on its dairy farms, providing its farmers with near real-time feedback every week.
Satellite imagery will be used to assist farmers who are using intensive rotational grazing. The co-op expects farmers will be able to capture a 20 percent increase in pasture utilization through the use of the technology. The co-op’s farmers manage more than 189,000 acres of pastureland.
The co-op will test the technology on pilot farms in 2021 and hopes to make the technology available to all farms in 2022.
In case you missed it … three cow technologies headline World Ag Expo innovation awards
Computer vision for cows, A.I. for manure processing and robotic milking prep robots are new technologies featured in Progressive Dairy’s recent coverage of World Ag Expo’s Top 10 new product awards.
Read more about these new products as originally reported by Editor Walt Cooley here.
Co-op to identify ‘happy cows’ with data
A British cooperative is using activity monitoring data to identify key behavior traits that signal positive animal welfare. Arla is calling the research ‘The Happy Cow Project.’ The researchers are looking for indicators of positive animal welfare in activity data such as social grooming, synchronicity and the use of cow brushes.
“Ultimately the study will allow us to map and measure positive behavior among cows and therefore promote better welfare as the learnings are shared with the wider Arla farmer network,” a co-op representative said.
Read more about the project here
Ag data transparency certification gets an update
A five-year-old program that helps farmers know if the suppliers they provide their data to are trustworthy just received an update. The ‘Ag Data Transparent’ seal has been in use since 2016. The founder of the certification and ag law attorney Todd Jazen announced recent updates to the program to advise farmers about how companies collect, share and use their data.
The major change to the revised certification is that it now requires tech companies to declare if they intend to sell aggregate data to third parties without user consent and also identify if users can opt-out of aggregated data sharing. Janzen says one of the big concerns still voiced by farmers today is whether their data can be sold to other companies.
The only cow-focused company promoted to be certified Ag Data Transparent is My Dairy Dashboard.
Read the 11 questions agtech companies must now answer to become certified here.
Note: Janzen’s blog is a great follow. Sign up for his newsletter here.
Fully automated commercial drone flights approved by FAA
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the FAA has approved the first fully automated, commercial drone flights. According to their report, agriculture will be one of the first industries in which commercial operations begin. Ag flight operations will begin in Kansas, Massachusetts and Nevada.
Read more here. [subscription required]
Register now for Animal AgTech Innovation Summit
If you haven’t already, register to join Editor Walt Cooley at the virtual Animal AgTech Innovation Summit (March 8) and connect with 350+ of the world’s leading animal health and nutrition businesses, livestock and aquaculture producers, start-ups and investors for a jam-packed day of looking into how to accelerate innovation in animal welfare, sustainability, and farm-to-fork solutions.
Use the discount code PROD10 to save 10 percent on your registration. Book your place now: http://bit.ly/2HyvNqb
Note: I don’t receive any portion of the registration fees collected from using the above-mentioned link or promo code.
Profit projections from ZISK
Projected profitability for two dairy herd sizes have DECLINED AGAIN since the beginning of the year 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 Feb. 5, 2021):
1,000-cow dairy = $75,017 (DOWN about $99,175 since the beginning of 2021)
2,500-cow dairy = $872,622 (DOWN about $267,375 since the beginning of 2021)