FINDING the right way to use the information available could leads to new innovations in the dairy industry, according to University of Kentucky animal and food sciences assistant professor Jeffrey Bewley.
Speaking at the 15th annual DairySA Innovation Day in Mount Gambier, the United States-based Professor Bewley said there are huge opportunities in every part of the world for using the kind of data already available.
“We already have a lot of data on our dairy farms but there are now so many new technologies coming out that are providing fresh sources of information that will enable us to ‘dig in’ more to areas such as animal health and reproduction,” he said.
The event theme was “Big Data” but Prof Bewley said the term could be confusing.
“Big data provides us with a lot of opportunities for the dairy industry,” he said.
“But the term is a little confusing and basically means using new sources of data – with new ways of analysing and visualising it – to help us make better business decisions.”
Prof Bewley said practical use of this information could have a big impact.
“It is the key to changing how we dairy – since we’re working with essentially the same animals and people no matter where we are in the world,” he said. Prof Bewley said technology should have the two-fold effect of improving the bottom line but there was often a gap between what was supposed to happen with technology and what actually happened on farm.
He said transferring this information into tangible products for use by dairy farmers was challenging and often required funding commitment from a third party but he believed Australian dairy producers were in the enviable position of being able to make decisions about what research will be undertaken for the ultimate benefit at the farm level.
“(Australia) is in a unique position with the Dairy Australia program, having the ability to make the decisions about what research gets accomplished,” he said.
“In the US we sometimes see a gap between what research is being done and the things that can really help at the farm level – I’m envious of the system you have.”
Prof Bewley said farmers needed to be clear about how the integrated data would assist in reaching business and operational goals.
“Information by itself is fairly useless,” he said. “We need a plan for how we intend to use the information, so that it meets our goals and makes sense from an economic perspective as well.”
