Abstract
Simple SummaryUnderstanding the perception of dairy farmers regarding precision livestock technologies is crucial for creating strategic actions that will increase the rate of adoption and usage of such technologies. A survey study was applied to 378 dairy farms located in Brazil. The farmers were characterized based on technology usage, farmer profile, farm characteristics, and production indexes. The farms were classified into seven clusters: (1) top yield farms; (2) medium–high yield, medium-tech; (3) medium yield and top high-tech; (4) medium yield and medium-tech (5); young medium–low yield and low-tech; (6) elderly medium–low yield and low-tech; and (7) low-tech grazing. Our study helped to elucidate the farmer’s perception about precision technologies and to shed light on challenges that need to be addressed by scientific research and extension programs.The use of precision farming technologies, such as milking robots, automated calf feeders, wearable sensors, and others, has significantly increased in dairy operations over the last few years. The growing interest in farming technologies to reduce labor, maximize productivity, and increase profitability is becoming noticeable in several countries, including Brazil. Information regarding technology adoption, perception, and effectiveness in dairy farms could shed light on challenges that need to be addressed by scientific research and extension programs. The objective of this study was to characterize Brazilian dairy farms based on technology usage. Factors such as willingness to invest in precision technologies, adoption of sensor systems, farmer profile, farm characteristics, and production indexes were investigated in 378 dairy farms located in Brazil. A survey with 22 questions was developed and distributed via Google Forms from July 2018 to July 2020. The farms were then classified into seven clusters: (1) top yield farms; (2) medium–high yield, medium-tech; (3) medium yield and top high-tech; (4) medium yield and medium-tech; (5) young medium–low yield and low-tech; (6) elderly medium–low yield and low-tech; and (7) low-tech grazing. The most frequent technologies adopted by producers were milk meters systems (31.7%), milking parlor smart gate (14.5%), sensor systems to detect mastitis (8.4%), cow activity meter (7.1%), and body temperature (7.9%). Based on a scale containing numerical values (1–5), producers indicated “available technical support” (mean; σ2) (4.55; 0.80) as the most important decision criterion involved in adopting technology, followed by “return on investment—ROI” (4.48; 0.80), “user-friendliness” (4.39; 0.88), “upfront investment cost” (4.36; 0.81), and “compatibility with farm management software” (4.2; 1.02). The most important factors precluding investment in precision dairy technologies were the need for investment in other sectors of the farm (36%), the uncertainty of ROI (24%), and lack of integration with other farm systems and software (11%). Farmers indicated that the most useful technologies were automatic milk meters systems (mean; σ2) (4.05; 1.66), sensor systems for mastitis detection (4.00; 1.57), automatic feeding systems (3.50; 2.05), cow activity meter (3.45; 1.95), and in-line milk analyzers (3.45; 1.95). Overall, the concerns related to data integration, ROI, and user-friendliness of technologies are similar to those of dairy farms located in other countries. Increasing available technical support for sensing technology can have a positive impact on technology adoption.
Highlights
There is a worldwide trend to optimize processes within a dairy farm, as the main challenge currently faced by producers is to balance high workloads with narrow profit margins
The seventh cluster (7: low-tech grazing) was characterized by an average of staff members per farm, 51 to 100 dairy cows in the herd kept in a pasture (G), milk yield below 500 L/day, and low adoption of precision technologies (0.41 on average), with the age of the owner varying between 41 and 50 years old
The proposed clustering approach used in this article allowed us to (1) investigate the perception of dairy farmers grouped based on similar farm profiles regarding the adoption of precision livestock technologies, (2) compile the main technologies used in Brazilian dairy farms, and (3) the usefulness perception for each technology
Summary
There is a worldwide trend to optimize processes within a dairy farm, as the main challenge currently faced by producers is to balance high workloads with narrow profit margins. Demanding consumers, climate change, increased growth in population, and food quality and security are changing the decision-making processes used by dairy managers. The effectiveness of these processes will be key to increasing the profitability of dairy farming in a sustainable way [1,2]. Herd monitoring is one of the most complex challenges for dairy farms, especially on a large scale [3]. By taking into account the complexity of the activities performed in dairy farms, automatic monitoring can be an important tool for management decisions, which is generally based only on the experience and judgment of the producer [4]. A sensor system consists of a device that measures physiological or behavioral parameters of an individual cow or herd, allowing the detection of deviations from normal animal conditions, which would require the producer’s attention [5]
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