The possibly largest digitalisation project within Austrian agriculture is less than two years young. Under the leadership of ZuchtData, a joint research and practice network was launched in October 2018 with 44 partners from business and science with the aim of networking data along the milk value chain and generating added value for science and practice. Since Monday, 22 June, there is now also an interface between the feed ration programme in the RDV cattle data network and the Lower Austrian feed laboratory Rosenau. Thus, another important milestone could be reached both in the networking and in the further development of the RDV feed ration program. In practice the situation is as follows. The analysis results of feed samples sent in by farmers are directly transferred from the feed laboratory to the feed ration calculator. No matter which ingredients are analysed in the feed laboratory, the ingredients not analysed are supplemented from a suitable standard feed, so that all values are always available in the ration calculation. In order for the farmer to be able to use these data automatically in the feed ration calculator, the farmer must give his explicit consent to network these data. The online ration calculation program is available free of charge to all control farms. Access is via the cattle data network, www.zar.at or via the homepages of the LKVs. The activation of the program and further information can be obtained from the responsible LKV.

"It is very gratifying for the Austrian cattle breeding community that so many innovative farmers, companies, claw trimmers and veterinarians have decided to participate in the D4Dairy project in order to work together with science on the further development of the cattle industry. The use of the latest technologies, extensive data bases in cooperation with renowned scientists and experts from various fields will also be used for prevention and early detection of diseases and the improvement of animal health, thereby improving animal welfare and food quality. The main objective of the project is to collect the large amount of different data on dairy farms and along the value chain, to exchange them with each other while taking data protection into account and to explore synergies of joint use. With this new interface we have succeeded in taking a further step in this direction", says the consortium leader of D4Dairy, Dr. Christa Egger-Danner (ZuchtData).