First D4Dairy Annual Meeting took place at the CSH
by Administrator (comments: 0)
Nearly all 44 project partners from science and economy came to the 1st annual meeting of D4Dairy on 22.5.2019 at the CSH in Vienna. The president of the CSH and this year's host of the meeting, Professor DDr. Stefan Thurner, presented the tasks of the CSH. "One of the main tasks of the CSH is to process and analyse such large amounts of data and then make meaningful forecasts in the sense of n=all. Through the D4Dairy project, we can carry out complex analyses and identify interrelationships by combining data from a wide variety of areas. The large amount of data allows us to recognize unexpected correlations. In the best case, new parameters for the early detection of diseases and their progression can be identified, i.e. preventive health care for cattle. We might be able to do something like 'personalized medicine' for cows, with much better data than for humans," says the 2017 scientist.
2 Areas, 9 Projects
In order to work through such a comprehensive network in a well-structured manner, this project under consortium leader Dr. Christa Egger-Danner is divided into two areas, which on the one hand are managed by Priv.-Doz. Dr. Birgit Fürst-Waltl (BOKU, Institute for Animal Sciences) and Prof. Dr. Thomas Wittek (VetMedUni Vienna, University Clinic for Ruminants). The areas themselves are in turn divided into nine subprojects. Each subproject was given time during the presentation of the current progress of the project to obtain an up-to-date overview. The nine subprojects cover the areas of digitisation, data integration, setting up interfaces, online tools to improve herd management, promotion of measures to reduce the use of antibiotics, big data analyses for the early detection of diseases using genetic markers or infrared spectral data from milk, effects of the stable climate on performance, health and animal welfare, further development in the field of genetics and genomics, detection of mycotoxins in animal feed and effects on milk yield and fertility, the area of data protection and the area of knowledge transfer in order to make the research results available to a broad basis.
With the mobile app "Elektronisches Medikamentenbuch", the farmer has the information on drug documentation and the waiting times of his animals at a glance at all times. The app will be available to cattle farmers from autumn of this year. Photo: ZAR
Rumen boli are used to record valuable information such as pH value and temperature via the processes directly in the rumen. Photo: smaXtec
There are a number of different sensors that record information such as chewing activity or standing and lying times, thus providing valuable information on heat, calving dates or possible health problems at an early stage. The picture shows the SCR by Allflex system. Photo: ZAR
This should be achieved
"In order to achieve added value for farmers, one of D4Dairy's main goals is to network information along the milk value chain and generate synergies for all project partners involved. Improved communication and data exchange between systems on the farm and external data aims to ensure that each data set only has to be entered once. Through data consolidation and complex analyses, new and extensive knowledge on animal health and animal welfare should be gained", says Dr. Christa Egger-Danner(ZuchtData), head of the D4Dairy consortium. The Vienna Complexity Science Hub (CSH) is in demand for such data volumes in order to generate benefits from the extensive information. This should provide new and better parameters for breeding, which in turn should flow into the breeding value estimation. The findings from the project should provide better tools for the early detection of diseases and the optimisation of herd management (feeding ...), which will be made available to the farmer by means of practicable software tools. This will enable Austrian agriculture to position itself on the international market with its strengths such as high animal health, low use of antibiotics and ecological footprint.
Speakers
Stefan Thurner
Stefan Thurner (Complexity Science Hub- CSH - MedUni Wien, Austrian Scientist of the Year 2017) hosted this year's D4Dairy Annual Meeting and presented the tasks of the CSH on the one hand and the results of the complexity research of the past years on the other hand.
Franz Papst
Franz Papst (TU Graz, Institute of Computer Engineering) presented approaches for integrating various data into a common database.
Elisabeth Quendler
Elisabeth Quendler (BOKU, Institute of Agricultural Engineering) showed possibilities for the optimization of workflows and automatic processes in dairy farms.
Franz Steininger
Franz Steininger (ZuchtData) reported on optimized feeding processes in cattle farming.
Lena Lemmens
Lena Lemmens (VetMedUni Vienna, Clinic for Ruminants) outlined the use of sensors for the early detection of lameness and claw diseases.
Clair Firth
Clair Firth (VetMedUni Vienna, Institute for Veterinary Public Health) described in her presentation the promotion of measures to reduce antibiotic resistance. D4Dairy builds on the findings of ADDA.
Marc Drillich
Marc Drillich (VetMedUni Vienna, Clinic for Ruminants) explained the progress of work in the project group Knowledge Transfer. A questionnaire for farmers, veterinarians and consultants is already in preparation.
Christa Egger-Danner
Christa Egger-Danner (consortium leader D4Dairy, ZuchtData) thanks the project partners for the excellent cooperation so far and gave a first overview of the 100 pilot farms for genetics and genomics, feeding, stable climate, herd management and mycotoxins.
Marlene Suntinger
Marlene Suntinger (ZuchtData) presented the first results from the feedback of the questionnaire of the control farms on the topics of automatic milking systems (AMS), sensors and automatic feeding systems.
Birgit Fürst-Waltl
Birgit Fürst-Waltl (BOKU, Institute of Animal Sciences, Head of D4Dairy-Area 2) moderated the five subprojects in Area 2.
Peter Klimek
Peter Klimek (Complexity Science Hub- CSH - MedUni Wien) showed which evaluations are possible by using comprehensive data from different sources. Big data analyses are intended to detect possible diseases in cattle as early as possible.
Andreas Werner
Andreas Werner presented the work of the internationally renowned project team on the use of milk spectral data as an indication of possible diseases. The health status of the herd can be monitored using milk infrared spectra and possible problems can be identified earlier.
Christoph Winkler
Christoph Winkler (BOKU, Institute for Farm Animal Sciences) presented the effects of the stable climate on animal health and animal welfare. By means of numerous sensors for the stable climate and also the outside temperature strategies for the improvement of the production efficiency are to be compiled in the context of the project.
Astrid Köck
Astrid Köck (ZuchtData) presents the use of KETOMIR for breeding.
Cameron Strachan
Cameron Strachan (FFoQSI) presents the detection of mycotoxins in feed planned by the project team around Qendrim Zebeli and their effects on fertility and animal health.
Rachateewan Khiosa-Ard
Rachateewan Khiosa-Ard (University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Institute of Animal Nutrition and Functional Plant Compounds) presents the planned sampling on farms to investigate the effects of mycotoxins on the performance of dairy cows.
Kristina Linke
Kristina Linke (ZuchtData) gave an overview of the D4Dairy project and the most important organisational issues.
Christian Baumgartner
Christian Baumgartner (Milchprüfring Bayern, scientific advisory board) sees the project D4Dairy structurally very well positioned and praises the fact that it deals with all cutting edge topics in this field.
Allan Hanbury
Allan Hanbury (Professor for Data Intelligence, TU Vienna, scientific advisory board) gave the project D4Dairy a very good report and pointed out to pay particular attention to the sustainability of the systems established in the project.