Project information
Coordinator: ZuchtData EDV-Dienstleistungen GmbH
Duration: 48 months, from October 2018 to September 2022
Total Budget from EU: € 2.496.795,00
Official website: click here: D4Dairy
Description and mission
Digitalisation, Data integration, Detection and Decision support in Dairying.
The overall objective of D4Dairy is to provide digital support for farm management by means of a data-based, networked information system exploiting the possibilities of modern technologies (mid-infrared spectra, genome information, …) and advanced data analysis, thus achieving further improvements in animal health, animal welfare and product quality.
Based on the COMET project, ADDA, the existing network along the milk value chain has been expanded by technology providers and scientific partners with a focus on new technologies to the D4Dairy consortium.
The D4Dairy sub-projects are divided into two primary thematic areas:
Area 1: Data and Decision Making – Digitization, Data Integration and Decision Support
Area 2: Data and Recognition – Data-driven recognition of risk factors and early indicators for improved health
Our role in the project
PESSL contributes to WP7: the overall aim is to develop a PLF strategy which can improve production efficiency of housed cattle by enhancing the animal comfort and welfare. This aim will be gradually achieved by fulfilling the key project objectives listed below:
1. Use commercially available devices to establish integrated on-farm monitoring system for detecting thermal conditions, air quality and animal responses;
2. Cooperate with farm managers to collect production related data and serve them with optimization strategies based on the analysis of collected data;
3. Model environmental stressors and animal responses to develop forecasting algorithms (focusing on production loss associated with sub-optimal environment).
The PESSL weather stations will be set up on the farms to record key (external) environmental variables such as the hourly temperature and humidity records. They will be positioned in the building at an animal height level (1.5-2 m height).The wind direction will be measured by anemometer. The thermal environment of milking stations will also be measured via a similar arrangement. To measure the ambient thermal environment of the individual animal, the data loggers will be fixed on neck bands. The data logging interval will be selected as 5 min and the data will be downloaded weekly.