FUTUREDAIRY4 Robotic Milking – 600 and Beyond (RM600+) 2014-2017 RM600+ is focused on building knowledge around incorporating Automatic Milking into large scale farming operations. In particular, attention is placed on pasture-based systems (>50% diet provided as grazed forage) and operating with voluntary cow traffic. Robotically milking 600+ cows is new, but necessary territory for the techonology and the system that surrounds it. The scale of the operation plus the impact of large herd dynamics (eg.

The overall objective of FUTUREMILQ is to devlop technologies and concepts that can ensure a future high food quality from existing and future milking systems. The purpose is to develop new methods for measurement of quality decreasing free acids, to develop a fast method for analysis of secific types of spores and to develop systems for monitoring and early warning.

Within the pilot project Smart Dairy Farming, companies, research institutes and farmers together to develop innovative resources in the field of animal health, fertility and nutrition. This means farmers can extend the life of their cows. The concrete result consists of sensors, indicators, decision models and advisory products that help in making the right choices when caring for cows. Proper care contributes to better health and longer life expectancy of the animals. Thus, this project contributes to the sustainability of the chain.

This multidisciplinary project seeks to integrate and extend existing state of the art technologies to ensure sustainable and responsible management of dairy units, with focus on cow health, milk quality and reduced emissions. We shall focus on milk metabolomic methods for determination of metabolic health, biomarker technologies for assessment of systemic health and accelerometer collars for measuring various activities including feeding behaviour, and hence intake. We shall also have access to NIR technology for feed quality assessment and rumen-bolus technology for measurment of rumen pH.

Development and prove of concept of a farm management system for automatisation of farm processes with usage of building referenced spacetimedata, use case: dairy production With the development of new procedures to the location of animals, tools and actors in stall systems new dimensions of the individual data processing and information extraction for animals through the consideration of building referenced space-time data open up.

a tool for surveillance of animal wellfare in dairy cattle Animal welfare is a multidimensional concept, which is based on a good animal health and the species-specific behavior. Both are largely determined by management. These include the daily animal control and surveillance routinely available process data. Therefore, the research project aims to develop a monitoring tool that allows the farmer an effective control on the herd and individual level. The monitoring of animal welfare of individual animals or groups of animals is paramount based on the observed behavior.

Using precision technologies, technology platforms and computational biology to increase the economic and environmental sustainability of pasture based production systems. PRECISIONDAIRY will develop a prototype platform that combines the disciplines of sensor/biosensor development, communication standards and database design with modellers, existing databases and mathematicians with the objective of increasing the environmental and economic sustainability of Irish pasture based dairy farms.