Context

Today, dairy cattle produce about 10 000 kg of milk per year per cow on average. Large portion of the carbon footprint in dairy production is related to feed production and digestion. Some estimates predict that, in the future, genetic selection allows to reduce feed intake needed to produce one liter of milk from current 0.80 kilograms to 0.68–‍0.74 kilograms. In this project, we aim to enable that reduction and simultaneously enhance animal well being through monitoring the drinking amounts of each individual cow. In addition to reducing the climate cost of dairy production, the climate change already increases the nutrient variance in the grasslands and produced feed, thus emphasizing the need for resiliency and development in cattle farming.

It has been shown that feed intake amount and composition have strong correlation to need of drinking. Using this correlation, the other way, we plan that by knowing how much and when a cow has drunk, farmer would know that the feed was good and cow is healthy and, furthermore, by comparing the drinking amount to milk yield, breeder would have date to enhance the feed-to-milk efficiency of individuals. To achieve these goals, we design a measurement setup that recognizes cow individuals and measures the water intake at the given time; and has the commercial viability to be scaled to practitioners’ farms. Pilot versions of the setup or optional setups are to be built during the project and tested on innovation group farms.