Smart Farm Conference on Improving the Efficiency of the Dairy Business.
Annually, EFKO's Effective Feed Division hosts conferences with its clients and partners to discuss the latest advancements in dairy farming and ensure they are on the same page.
The major goal of this year's conference is to get farmers to view their company's efficiency in terms of profit. Right down to the last little detail. It turns out that this method assists in identifying numerous untapped prospects, even for experienced farmers.
Feed accounts for half of farm expenses. But even in advanced and modern farms, cost-cutting measures while maintaining animal productivity and health are still possible. For instance, European farmers are increasingly "turning to artificial intelligence" for this purpose.
A range of contemporary tools and monitoring systems can provide continuous data analysis for efficient farm management. You install the app on your tablet or phone, collect the information, and here are the statistics with feeding recommendations and ration options. It sounds like science fiction, but it's already a reality.
Hugh McConaghy
Cattle Feeding Science and Technology Specialist at Zinpro (UK)
"Humans cannot keep in mind and process the amount of information that contemporary farms provide us with. We simply can't progress without artificial intelligence. It needs no rest, it can learn, and it analyzes 24/7. Reducing costs by even a few tens of cents per cow yields tangible savings over the longer perspective. But most importantly, artificial intelligence can make predictions. For example, make feeding recommendations based on animal disease rate incidence and even know how to prevent it. The more data we provide, the more accurate the predictions and the more effective the decisions."
Aleksandr Radionov
Doctor of Veterinary Sciences, Cattle Manager at Zinpro International
"Besides implementing innovative solutions, you can't forget the basics. This is the background we lay in animals in the early stages of adulthood. Quality calf feeding and good weight gain in young calves, early diseases monitoring will directly affect the productivity of the adult cow. We could have cool sports cars, you might say, and we could drive them fast if we have pumped up the wheels. The gold standards in our field have already been established and are available to the general public. But on most farms, we keep getting either a supercow with high milk yields but a high likelihood of early retirement, or low-performing "freaks". Investigating the proper housing and care for the animal at each stage of development will help prevent this scattering."
The main event at the Smart Farm Conference was the presentation of a new product: press cake containing two types of protected proteins, soybean and sunflower. Such a mixed feed additive also primarily addresses the issue of farm economics. It has all the necessary qualities of an effective feed but is less costly than its single-protein alternatives.
Marina Gerasimova
General Director at Biruch Innovation Center
"Meeting with our clients to talk about pressing problems, contemporary trends, and everything that will help farms become more profitable has turned into a nice tradition. Many of our home farmers will undoubtedly be curious about using artificial intelligence and wish to implement this system. We still observe cases when milk yields are the priority for the farm, and profit is secondary. However, we can't lose sight of the fact that one of the responsibilities of business is money counting. It is essential for maintaining equipment, buying high-quality feed, inspiring and developing staff, and moving the project forward. Yes, we do have enough range and volume of products on the dairy shelves in our country. Most farms are expanding, new complexes are being built, and the size and productivity of the herds are rising. We strive to meet the market and customers' needs for feed and provide a comprehensive range of services for dairy farming. We now offer a wider variety of protected proteins, are the sole producers of protected fats in Russia, and are always coming up with fresh innovative solutions."