Initially announced last year, the Milk Sustainability Center is an open-source collaboration between John Deere and DeLaval designed to integrate all data at every part of the dairy process, from crop growth and harvesting, through to animal and feeding performance, and finally the overall milk yield.
Several partners have joined the system since it was announced, including Dinamica Generale, which links to its own DTM cloud platform, for the sharing of key performance indicators regarding sustainability. Enrico Salvaterra, marketing manager for Dinamica Generale, explained at the event: “60% of the total cost to the dairy farmer is made up of the feed. Our system provides total tracking, with the ability to create recipes on the platform, monitor the total as the recipes are loaded into the feeder wagon and then track the consumption per feed load or per ingredient.”
Within the Milk Sustainability Center, this data can be linked to the total milk production and near infrared yield data from the forager, enabling the trends to be identified and informed decisions made about the production chain. The overall system will provide information on nutrient use efficiency, as well as sustainability metrics including carbon dioxide equivalents across the overall farm, the herd and the fields.
John Deere highlights that the system is brand agnostic, and it encourages third party manufacturers and software developers to link to the system, enabling a greater amount of data to be collected. At present, there are 30 APIs connected to the system, enabling herd data and farm details to be added.
The overall goal will be a system that can automate suggestions to boost both sustainability and profitability throughout the dairy chain.
The Milk Sustainability Center is now available in 13 countries, including the UK, and it is free of charge to subscribe.