The Power of Data-Driven Farming
Data is a vital part of improving operations at every company and in every industry — including animal health. Our technology solutions are helping farmers work smarter, do more for their animals and increase efficiency and productivity, too. As we learn more and more every day, there is power in data.
Our world is becoming increasingly data-driven and that’s true in farming, too. We’re helping customers use data to be more productive and take better care of their animals by monitoring different behaviors, environmental effects and more. It’s how farming will benefit from the data revolution.
With the insights that data provides, farmers can make better decisions and work smarter – not harder. They can be more productive, eliminate unnecessary tasks and better manage resources to maintain profitability and, most importantly, improve their herds’ health. For example, monitoring technology minimizes stressors on cows by identifying animals that need extra attention and letting others be left alone to eat, drink and rest.
The technology’s early detection capability is crucial, allowing the farm team to address potential health issues two to three days earlier than through visual observation alone. Through our SenseHub™ Dairy solution, farmers can monitor key behaviors, such as cattle eating time, rumination and activity for insights on reproductive cycles as well as health and well-being. With these insights, farmers can focus their resources where they’re needed most.
Noted one of our customers who has used monitoring for two years: “Data plays a day-to-day role in our decision-making and our style of operating. For us, we think of our herd as a group of individuals. Every cow counts, and we want them all to be performing.”
We agree. Within our company, we have a team dedicated to ensuring customers get the most from our data solutions. After all, data is a strategic asset, and we want farmers to use it across the animal lifecycle to provide better care. It also means instead of providing data from individual sensors, we perform all the analytics to ensure the correct insights are available to farmers and other stakeholders.
We take pride in how our monitoring solutions provide rigorous field-based data, delivering what farmers need. Combined with our global footprint and partnerships with other major industry stakeholders, we can deliver immense value from our unique data sets for use in a variety of related applications. Additionally, solutions such as our DataLive™ platform, enables us to access data from multiple farms to improve services for veterinarians, nutritionists and agricultural advisors.
“Being able to drill into those reports in a lot more detail helped with feeding and getting on top of a lot of the health issues coming into mating last spring,” noted another customer. “When mating started, our cows were a lot healthier and happier than previous years, and that showed in our results.”
Yet another customer believes our monitoring collars are essential tools for animal management. “I am impressed with the scope of the data available on each cow in the herd through the technology through customized reports available on a computer or mobile phone. Having the data available to others on the farm team and our veterinarians also provides timely intervention to help maintain overall herd health and prevent minor issues from escalating into major ones.”
Even data has a qualitative benefit, something we’ve seen in the peace of mind data-driven farming can give to our customers. With data and insights at their fingertips, they can farm with more freedom. Our customers work incredibly hard, and we’re proud to help make their jobs and their lives easier – and we look forward to doing more. And with widespread adoption, together we will pave the way for integrating even more advanced technologies in the future.