PLF Technology in Dairy Farm Management

This assignment delves into the application of Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) technology within a large-scale dairy farm named ArchiFarm. It emphasizes the role of PLF in enhancing cattle health, optimizing milk production, and improving overall farm efficiency. The document analyzes the initial investment costs associated with PLF implementation, while underscoring its long-term cost-benefits through increased production, improved management practices, and enhanced data insights for informed decision-making.

ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE
CASE STUDY: ArchiFarm
1. Introduction:
ArchiFarm is a large dairy production which is established within Australia. It holds for three
production sites, with the major one being located in rural Victoria. There are around 2500 cows
those are housed. There are other small sites which are in NSW and hold each of them about 200
cows. ArchiFarm is involved in the production of fresh milk that is sent to the milk processors who
then processes the milk and sells the bulk milk and dairy products from it to the consumers.
Since ArchiFarm is turning out to be large scale dairy producer in the whole of Australia, there is a
need for it to manage its livestock, secure a consistency in the production of fresh milk both in
quantity and quality and a need to keep the profits from shrinking. After the deregulation of the
industries in Australia, dairy industries are working under difficult conditions to stay afloat in the
competitive market and keep their profits intact which are always at a threat of going below the
margin (Saha, 2008). As a result of this, there is a major need for the organization to set up
reasonable objectives for the business which it shall have to fulfil in the future or make changes in
the business environment so as to make the business conducive to achieve the set goals as planned.
Currently, the major business goals of ArchiFarm is the maximise profit. For a business to run
properly in an attempt to achieve the main goals, motivation is important since this motivation shall
drive the company towards a future goal set by it. Such a motivation for ArchiFarm comes from the
stakeholders and the drivers of the firm who set the goals for the firm and monitors it to watch it
thrive or fail to achieve the set goals. For ArchiFarm, one of the important goals is to satisfy the
stakeholders of the company (Ross, Weill, and Robertson, 2006).
As of now, ArchiFarm holds several contracts with its dairy processors which binds the company to
deliver goods to the processors at a required date. The contract also dictates the requirements from
the produce of ArchiFarm, that is, the quality of the milk, the quantity, and the shipping schedules.
Keeping all these contractual obligations in view, the main purpose of ArchiFarm is to maintain the
livestock in a proper condition and the provide proper quality and the requisite quantity of milk as
demanded by the contract. Failure to stick with the conditions of the contract will invite penalties on
the firm. Hence it could be seen that the main purpose of ArchiFarm in the end is profit making

through the production of quality milk and maintenance of a proper relation with the dairy
processors by sticking to the contract and its dictated requirements.
While maintenance of profit margin is one of the major objectives of ArchiFarm, it is important to
understand that such an objective is not easy to achieve in the current competitive dairy market of
Australia. In the recent market most dairy producers and processors have lost all their bargaining,
which has in turn, been gained by the supermarkets who have attained a significant increase in
market power (Saha, 2007). As a result, the dairy producers have all had a negative impact in
response to the sudden increase of the power of the supermarket in recent years. For a dairy
producing firm like ArchiFarm, it is thus important for them to maintain profit at all cost and it has to
do so with several changes to its current structure.
2. Current State, Information Architecture, PLF Installation Prospects:
For the maintenance of profit margin, it is important to go through two important routes: the
increase of revenue and the reduction of cost. While the increase of revenue can be achieved by the
increase of milk production and the distribution of milk which is an independent feature, the
organization has to take some steps to reduce the cost of running the organization while maintaining

the quality and quantity of goods that has been produced. Currently, ArchiFarm is running on a past
mechanism which relies a lot on manual labour. Though some parts of the ArchiFarm organization
has gone through a form of automatization, ArchiFarm is still largely outdate in terms of the modern
farming technologies that is required for the maintenance of livestock of such a large scale dairy
concern (Hamel, 2007). ArchiFarm uses an automated milking system which records the amount of
milk obtained from each cow but has to be moved and attached by manual farm workers. The
smaller production sites under ArchiFarm does not contain any form of automated feeding system
and rely of farm workers for feeding and for the recognition of bovine diseases. For such outdated
techniques and reliance on manual labour, the costs of ArchiFarm is much higher than any modern
concern which has equipped itself with all the latest equipment necessary for the dairy market to
keep track of cows, to improve or maintain a specific quality of milk and provide consistent quantity
of the product as demanded by the contract with the dairy processors. A major reduction of costs
may occur only if ArchiFarm looks into a way to integrate and employ new automatic system into the
organization.
Currently, ArchiFarm is looking into the Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) which is use of advanced
technologies employed to optimize the contribution of each animal in a farm. It can be used to have
better results in livestock farming as it removes the major difficulties that creeps into the system
regarding maintenance of livestock in a large scale farming market. With the employment of PLF
technologies in the market, each animal will have sensors attached to them that will record their
movements and their performance and monitor their health conditions. Such monitoring and
recording reduces production risks and helps in optimising quantity and quality of production.
ArchiFarm wishes to employ PLF technology to monitor the health of its livestock. It wishes to attach
sensors to the cows’ ears and with the help of data driven health monitoring, keep a track of the
health of the cows as captured by the sensors and with the help of the collected data maintain an
animal-specific health prediction model (Gøtze and Östberg, 2007). It wishes to use data mining and
predictive algorithm models to anticipate potential problems before any serious illness occurs. In the
farming industry, the anticipation of disease before the major symptom of the disease occurs in
important as proper antibiotics could be prescribed at that point as once the symptoms of the
disease begins to show more explicitly, the disease has worked its way in the cows’ body for a week
or so, and that means that serious infections have already occurred. This results in the reduction of
milk quality and the separation that is required of the sick cows’ milk from the healthy cows’ milk
and the extra treatment that the sick cows’ milk has to go through before it is released for the dairy
processing areas. By using the modern technology and algorithms, ArchiFarm seeks to integrate milk

production data and health information together to get an overview of the cows and the quality of
the milk that they could produce.
3. Organization Functions and Application Usage (regarding the Functions):
The dairy farm in ArchiFarm can divided on the basis of their functions in such a way that the
functions requires to be delegated to specific departments which control, maintains and monitors
specific sectors of the farm. The integration and the cooperation between these departments is
what is necessary for the dairy farm to keep running, management of livestock and the maintenance
the quality and quantity of the produce that it is harvesting from the farms. Six important functions
have been identified which are relevant to the livestock management and is important, and that has
delegated to the department of livestock management (Gøtze and Christiansen, 2007). These
specific functions are maintained by the local Operations unit, except Machinery Management,
which is the responsibility of the Operations Unit in the main site and outsourced by the two smaller
sites. The six functions are:

 Young Stock Management:The function of young stock management deals with the rearing
of young calves from the time of their birth to the age at which they are capable of
producing milk and could be used to replace the older, non-productive population. The
function still requires human care and labour since this period of a calf’s life is sensitive and
machines could not be relied upon during this period.
 Nutrition and Feeding: This function involves the development of nutrient requirements,
the procurement of proper fodder for the cattle to feed on and the scheduling of the feed
and feeding in a way that optimises the performance of the cattle and accelerates the
production of quality milk. The milk harvesting and hygiene is closely related to it as well.
Nutrition and Feeding is one department where a lot of automization can take place since
PLC has provided several technologies that could be added to boost the performance and
efficiency of Nutrition and Feeding department. Some of the technologies that could be used
are:
 Robotic Calf Feeders: This is a machine that could be used in the Young
Stock Department and which works efficiently to feed calves during their
period of growth. They also contain a self-contained unit that is used to heat
the water, dispenses a programmed amount of milk replacer and then it
helps mixing the milk replacer and water within a container from which the
calf can thus easily suck it through a nipple feeding station.
 Robotic Feeders: Robotic Feeders could be used to feed adult cows and
keep them healthy. Robotic feeders have a system that automatically load,
mix and deliver fresh feed all day. The feeding program which controls that
robotic feeders can be accessed through computers, smart phones or tablets
and the software could be used to communicate and work together with the
farm’s milking system software.
 Rumination Monitors: Activity and rumination monitors help to rumination
time and detect early signs of any form of disease before visual signs arise.
This could be used for detect heats and early indications of health problems.
Motion sensors and microphones that are closely attached to the cows’ neck
are used to feed the system and make predictions on the basis of the data
served. It works together with Disease Prevention and Control and is an
efficient management tool.

 Disease Prevention and Control: This requires thorough assessment and disease treatment
as well as the application of preventive measures so the cattle could thrive in a disease-free
environment. Automation can help in both disease prevention and control by monitoring
health status which can be done by employing the following technologies:
o Body Temperature:
 CorTemp: Core body temperature is required to be monitored to
understand the health of a cow. An indigestible bolus and a receiver unit
lodged in the reticulum of the cow where it remains, monitoring the core
temperature of the cow.
 SensOor: This is the product that is connected to the eartag of the cow and
monitors ear temperature, feeding time, rumination time and activity
patterns,
 TempVerified Fever Tags: This is inserted inside the ear canal and it
monitors temperature for every 15 minutes.
o Mastitis:
 MilkHub: Mounted on to the milk line, this is the long milk hose which is
connected to the in-line sensor. It is single sensor that provides cow
mastitis, plant cleaning , yield and milking measurements.
 MastiLine: This helps in the early diagnosis. It is a Sub-clinical mastitis takes
place through ATP-bioluminescence.
 DCC: This device measures the somatic cell count in the milk and helps in
detecting abnormal deviations.
o Body Conditioning scoring:
 DeLaval BCS: This device takes a 3D image of the cow’s lower back and
calculate the condition of the body score for each cow, thereby sending it
through DeLaval DelPro Farm Manager, where farmers can see a graphical
representation of the study.
o Rumen pH:
 SmaXtec pH & Temp Sensor: The device helps in the continuation process
measurement of ruminal pH and cow temperature for which it is
transmitted wirelessly to the base station within real-time.
 eCow, eBolus and farmBolus: Both boluses can be used to accurately pH
and temperature of the animal. They can measure to the accuracy of around
+/- 0.1 pH and +/- 0.1°C for up to 6 months.

 Reproduction: The function is to manage the rates of cow pregnancy and the cycle of
lactation in order to maintain a high reproductive performance. This is done to maximise
milk yield. Some technology introduces to monitor reproduction activity are:
o Etrus Detection:
 CowScout I / S: The device keeps a track of the animal’s movement at all
times, analyses the data and produces the period of high activity for each
individual animal.
 Rescounter III:This device record activity every two hours so that the cow
can be detected when it gets into heat.
 Heatseeker II: This device monitors and records cow activity so that it would
easy to identify when the cow is in heat and ready to reproduce.
o Predicting the moment of calving:
 AfiAct II: This device monitors the cow’s behaviour closely and with
advanced algorithm predicts accurately the moment of calving.
 Moocal: This device predicts that when the cow is likely to give birth. It is
done by measuring the tail movements during labour contraction and
sending an SMS text directly to notify authorities.
 Cowcall: This device is being placed in the vagina of the cow 14 days before
calving and once the water breaks, the device comes out and notifies
authorities by a SMS text.
 Milk Harvesting and Hygiene: This function is related to the management of milking
practices is to ensure the highest milk quality is delivered. Some of the automatic milk
systems are:
 Astronaut A4 Milking Robot: The advanced device is the part of an
automated milking system that milks, feeds and monitors the cow health.
 VMS: This is a robotic mechanism that milks and cleans the cow after
milking.
 Fullwood M²erlin: This is a unique twin design exit which milks the cow and
exits them when the milking process is completed.
 Machinery Maintenance:The functions of this is the routine checking and the maintenance
of all the machinery that has been installed in the farm and requires a routine check to
function properly and effectively.

4. Application Cooperation:
The technological advancement made by the usage of PLC will only be effective if the proper
cooperation between applications and the authorities takes place. The functions of the dairy farm as
state above will work alongside with the advanced technology and could work most efficiently if the
departments are connected with each other and work in cooperation since the livestock
management as a whole is a interconnected endeavour and requires the integration of several tasks
in a manner to increase performance and productivity and facilitate better management.
o Young Stock Management:This function works along with the functions of Reproduction and
Nutrition and Feeding since a calf reproduced and born properly has a better chance of
survival if they are fed properly and kept fit in a good nursery environment.
o Nutrition and Feeding: The function works closely with young stock management, and with
disease prevention and control and reproduction.
o Disease Prevention and Control:Good nutrition management helps in the maintenance of
the good health of the cattle.
o Reproduction:This works along with the young stock rearing and disease prevention and
Control.
o Milk Harvesting and Hygiene: This functions closely with Nutrition and Feeding and
reproduction and also with the logistics department.

o Data Collection and Analytics: The PLC technology feed the data into a main computer were
the data is studied, analysed and graphical representations of it is made to aid the farmers
using predictive algorithms.
o ArchiFarm Operator: All the collected and analysed data is received and sent to the
ArchiFarm Operator of the specific site where the data is collated, checked and after study,
the management takes the necessary steps required to ensure the health and performance
of the cattle and the maintenance of quality and quantity of the product.
5. Data Dissemination:
The installation of PLF technology on a large scale in a large scale dairy production farm will be an
expensive affair and would require a major initial capital cost to facilitate the installation procedure.

The constant maintenance of the technology will also be required and would incur costs recurring
annually. However, the cost-benefits of the PLF technology cannot be overstated. In due course, PLF
will make use of its optimization techniques to make sure that the quality and quantity of the
product is maintained and improved in the long run (Bernard, 2005). The reliance of manual labour
could be replaced by the reliance on automatic system that keeps track and monitors the health
information and production capabilities of bovine population in the farm making it easier and more
economic in nature. Hence, in the long run, the initial cost that has been incurred during the
installation of PLF technology would be returned with a major profit to it. The shift of the dairy farm
to a more technologically advanced market will make it even more capable of surviving the current
competitive market of dairy industries.
The data collected using PLF technology is disseminated to the authorities and can be used to
properly manage the livestock of ArchiFarm and also make sure that the quality and quantity of the
produce is maintained. Since PLF technology always keeps monitoring the behaviour of the cow and
the core temperature, the data could be used to predict the health of the cows and prevent any
future diseases before symptoms become visual. The technology could also be used to measure the
quality of the milk produced by the cow and to make sure no internal disease in present in the cattle.
The reproduction of the cattle is also monitored by the PLF technology so that proper care could be
administered when the cow is in labour. The automaton milking helps in the efficient milking of the
cattle and ensures that quality and quantity of milk is provided properly. The machines could also
help in feeding the cows timely and making milk-substitutes for calves during young stock
management.
With the constant monitoring of PLF technology, there will be a marked increase in production,
better management,in the end, the fulfilment of the major objective of ArchiFarm: maintaining the
profit margin of the firm.

References
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