How artificial intelligence can come to the aid of dairy producers
The Livestock Institute estimates that in ten years more than half of dairy farmers currently in practice will have retired.The replacement rate of retirements is low.The disadvantages linked to the profession are numerous: difficult working conditions, low income, poor press in terms of animal welfare.France is one of the leading countries in Europe in dairy production.The sector represents 298.000 jobs and 54.000 dairy farms spread across the territory.If France fails to rebalance the age pyramid in the profession, national dairy production could drastically decrease in the years to come.Wage earning and enlargement of farms are part of the solutions.But they are not sufficient.The sector must count on artificial intelligence to optimize production, increase profitability and improve animal welfare.
Cost reduction and increase in profitability
Artificial intelligence arouses little interest in France in the agricultural field, unlike the United States.Artificial intelligence applied to crops, via drones that observe the fields, is just beginning to develop in France.Applications in animal production are marginal.The breeders consider that with the draft robots, they have everything they need.Wrongly.Artificial intelligence can make it possible to have more optimized management of farming, lower costs and increase profitability.
Dairy producers are price takers.They have little latitude to negotiate prices with distributors.Generally, they sell their milk close to the cost price.They must use the direct sale of milk or its transformation into farm products to increase their margins.Artificial intelligence can improve production upstream, holding to predict which decisions will make it possible to obtain long -term long -term profitability.From a data collection (milk analysis, cow genomics, food, immediate environment of the farm), it is possible to provide which race and what a lifting of cows is most suitable for each environment in order to guarantee aoptimal milk production, and therefore more potential profits.
Artificial intelligence can also promote cost savings, in terms of veterinary interventions for example.On average, only 30% to 35% of the first artificial inseminations in the Holstein cow, which is very widespread in Europe in dairy production, lead to calving.Artificial intelligence increases the chances of success of insemination by identifying with precision the moment when the cows are in heat.For the producer, it is an additional lever in order to improve its margins.
Technology at the service of animal welfare
Animal well-being in food production is important for consumers.It is also for breeders.A large majority of them are very attached to their animals and develop a conscientious approach to their comfort.Artificial intelligence makes it possible to ensure their well-being as best as possible by identifying unsecured subclinical symptoms that could harm their health and reducing unnecessary drugs, for example.This is called, in jargon, "predictive maintenance".
By monitoring different values when collecting milk (fatty acid, urea, protein and fat), the digital dairy assistant can detect aberrant values and determine the exact source.Sometimes anomalies result from nutrition.Cow feed is modified.Other times, this is the first sign of a developing disease, such as the mastitis, a common inflammation of the udder linked to bacteria.The producer takes adequate measures to best treat the animal.
Pilot projects
Europe, and in particular France, have a significant delay compared to the United States.But pilot projects are starting to see the light of day.The Danish cooperative Arla Foods has integrated technology based on artificial intelligence into the production chain in some farms in some farms based on artificial intelligence.The American-Spanish Society substrate AI, which provides an introduction to the Paris Stock Exchange this fall, is developing a pilot project in Amarante, near Porto, with the support of the Portuguese government.As early as 2022, artificial intelligence should allow optimized production management in five farms, before a deployment at European level provided by the company from 2023-24.France cannot miss this technological revolution if the country wants to stay in the leading peloton of world milk producers in the years to come.Public support for the development of pilot projects must be created in France.Aids to support producers must also be released.
Christopher Dembik (*)4 minutes
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