DEVELOPMENT AND ECONOMICS OF MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES INCORPORATING AUTOMATED HEALTH MONITORING TECHNOLOGIES IN DAIRY FARMS

Structural changes in the dairy industry, such as larger herd size and decreased availability of qualified personnel, coupled with an interest in improved cow care, reduced production costs, and improved quality of life of dairy producers, are the major thrusts driving automation in farm management (e.g., automated or semi- automated milking, estrus detection, and calf feeding). An area that is less developed but for which there is notable potential is the use of automated health monitoring (AHM) systems to identifycows with health problems. Thus, our long-term goal is to improve dairy cow health, productivity, and longevity while reducing labor costs of dairy farms through the adoption of health monitoring and management strategies that incorporate automated health-monitoring technologies. Thus, the specific objectives or this research project are:Objective 1-Develop management strategies incorporating AHM systems. We will design and evaluate new health monitoring programs that rely primarily on alerts and information generated by AHM systems rather than through traditional daily clinical examination programs. These experiments will also allow us to explore the potential benefits of earlier identification of disease for reducing disease severity and its impact on cow performance and health.Objective 2-Develop a software tool to calculate the economic impact of incorporating AHM systems for health monitoring of dairy cattle for individual dairy farms. We will accomplish this by developing a new module to the existing Cornell Dairy Farm Model (CDFM). This module will enable a farm to evaluate the economics of adopting AHM systems for their own conditions. To the best of our knowledge, there are no models or simulation tools available to dairy producers for an unbiased evaluation of the economics of AHM systems.