Australian Agricultural Sustainability

This assignment delves into the topic of sustainable agricultural practices in Australia. Students analyze a collection of academic research papers to examine various aspects, including greenhouse gas emissions from beef cattle production, water and land resource utilization, and the environmental impact of different farming models like predator-friendly systems. The papers provide data and insights into challenges and potential solutions for achieving sustainable agriculture in Australia.

ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE
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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................................2
Task 1.1 Stakeholders and Drivers................................................................................................................2
Prime Goals of Farm Business...................................................................................................................2
Farm Owner...............................................................................................................................................3
Maintenance Operators..............................................................................................................................3
Transportation Departments.......................................................................................................................4
Wholesale Contractors, Retailers and Distributors....................................................................................5
Task 1.2 Business Functions..........................................................................................................................5
Cattle Maintenance....................................................................................................................................5
Milk Extraction..........................................................................................................................................6
Work Supervision and Better facilitation..................................................................................................6
Transportations through better means........................................................................................................7
Efficient Record Keeping..........................................................................................................................7
Task 1.3 Business Processes..........................................................................................................................9
Health Monitoring of Cattle.......................................................................................................................9
Milk testing and Preservation....................................................................................................................9
Contract Supply and Dealing...................................................................................................................10
Alternatives to make operations more Cost Effective.............................................................................10
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................10
Reference List..............................................................................................................................................12
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Introduction
Milk production is known to be one of the most blooming rural businesses in Australia. There
are numerous dairy farms in Australia that produce billions of liters of milk every year.
However, in the recent times, due to modernization in industrial and production sector, the
numbers of malls, supermarkets and other outlets for packed and processed foods including milk
have tremendously increased. This has led into the deprivation of milk production and profit
margin of many milk producing farms located in many parts of Australia. The following report is
about the different issues that are faced by rural based milk producing farms and certain steps
and actions that can be taken by them to deal with the issues. This has included different reasons
that have led to the decrease in profit margins of milk farm owners. The farms owned by a
fictitious producer named ArchiFarm have been considered for the study where the need for
making production more efficient and cost effective has been focused on. Moreover, the health
monitoring process of cows and cattle in order to produce health and protein rich milk has been
discuss along with the processes that are used in farm owned by ArchiFarm.
Task 1.1 Stakeholders and Drivers
Prime Goals of Farm Business
One of the most basic necessities of human in terms of food and nutrition is milk. The farms
around any country have the objective of satisfying the dairy demands of that particular nation.
The ArchiFarm has been involved into production of milk by automated machines from the
cows. According to Cottle et al. (2016, p.389), all the stakeholders and responsible authorities
have to work in coordination in order to make the production facilities work in a smooth manner.
The major stakeholders and drivers of the milk production business are the Maintenance
Operators, Transportation Departments and Contractors as well as Wholesale Contractors. In the
Victoria based farm, that has strength of 2500 cows, has its own facilities for maintenance, care
and documentations based services units. However, the other smaller production units consisting
of 200 cows each located in New South Wales have to depend on external contractors to get the
transportation, care and maintenance done.
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The overall process of milk production starting from milk extraction to refining, storage and
export to different locations is a very expensive process that causes the profit margin to reduce
by a significant value. In case of ArchiFarm, it has been observed that there is a scope to enhance
the procedures at the workplaces starting from milking from the cows to transportation, where
the processes can be made very cost effective. Moreover, this opportunity has been made use of
by supermarkets and other stores that focus on selling packed and powdered milk at huge costs to
earn tremendous profits that has made the functioning of dairy farms slowed down. As per
Charmley et al. (2016, p.175), the catapulting of operations that are currently underperforming, it
is very important to make the general public aware of the special facilities that a brand or
company is providing and how it is beneficial for them.
Farm Owner
The farm owner is the main stakeholder of the dairy production business. Most of the profit is
shared by the farm owners and the people working directly this department. The farm owner is
responsible for the maintenance and operations of the mainstream milk production business. As
stated by Wallach et al. (2017, p.47), the overall supervision of the work is done by farm owners.
The ArchiFarm has been using the Precision Livestock farming for recording and financial
calculations purposes. Moreover, the Precision Livestock Farming is also used to make every
animal contribute towards better production of milk and its healthy living.
In the modern time, the most significant challenge in front of the farm owners is to counter the
threat that has originated due to the emergence of supermarkets and malls. Moreover, the lack of
awareness among the general population has been one of the most important reasons about the
people for not being able to know about the milk that be directly obtained from dairy farms. As
mentioned by Nguyen et al. (2016, p.2854), advertising of products along with their benefits and
positive factors of using pure dairy products. Hence, the management of ArchiFarm is currently
planning for making the production efficient and reducing the overall cost.
Maintenance Operators
The maintenance department or the outside operators that take care of the maintenance in any
particular farm are also among the major stakeholders that are involved in the operations of a
dairy farm. The responsibility of maintenance operators is to ensure that the operations that are
currently ongoing in the dairy farm locations are being carried in an ideal manner. Goulart et al.
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(2016, p.894) has opined that the cleanliness and looking after the infrastructure is being done as
well as monitored by the maintenance operators. In addition, the health of cows and other cattle
that are present in the farm is also looked after by the maintenance operator teams. This involves
the regular checkup of animals for diseases and some other form of infections.
The Maintenance teams at ArchiFarm are responsible for the testing of milk samples and keeping
them separate as per their quality. In case anything unusual is detected in the milk samples that
are produced, the cow is tested for any kind of disease or disorder. The quantity of milk along
with its quality is constantly monitored for every individual cow. As described by Johnson and
Wallach (2016, p.823), if a particular cow produces more than usual quantity of milk, the milk
density decreases, which is not preferred by customers. If the milk quantity is less than the
desired level of production, it is again a sign of degrading health of the cow. In order to ensure
production of ideal milk, it is very important to focus on the food that is given to the cows. Apart
from regular fodder like grass and other similar products, chocolates can be very helpful in
making the cows produce better quality milk.
Transportation Departments
The transportation departments are responsible for carrying the milk from dairy farms to
authorized dealers and distributors. The farms located at both Victoria and New South Wales
have signed contracts with outside suppliers to transport the milk to different locations and
outlets. Currently, there are vehicles that use too much of fuel to cover certain distances. Hence,
the ArchiFarm management is discussing over the fuel-efficient issue of the vehicles that seems
to be a significant factor in the increase of overall cost of production. Wiedemann et al. (2016,
p.886) has stated that the transportation vehicles need to be maintained regularly and should be
replaced by new ones when old.
In the current scenario, the role of the transportation department is to check that the operations
are carried out is such a manner that the fuel consumption is lesser than its exiting value.
Moreover, the ArchiFarm is planning to have its own autonomous department of transportation
unlike its existing system of outsourcing. According to Rivero and Daim (2017, p.4318), having
its own dedicated transportation department for any company is very beneficial as a huge amount
of extra taxes and commission that is being paid to the outsourced business.
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Wholesale Contractors, Retailers, and Distributors
Wholesale contractors are the people that purchase the milk in huge quantity and sell it further.
The wholesaler is an important part of the Supply Chain and receives the products to be sold in
wholesale from multiple producers. In the following case, the whole sale contractors receive
most of their milk from ArchiFarm. In addition to the Wholesalers, the Retailers and Distributers
are also very important part of the Supply chain as they have direct contacts with clients and
customers (Taylor et al. 2016, p.599). In this particular case, it is being observes that the people
are getting more attracted towards the different dairy products that are being manufactured and
provided by contractors and manufacturers working with supermarkets. Hence, the involvement
of retailers and distributors is very important in analyzing the reasons behind the inclination of
people towards supermarket products.
In addition, the different people that deal with direct clients and customers have to participate
actively. The management of ArchiFarm along with all the associated distributors, retailers and
wholesale contractors has decided to conduct a survey of people that prefer to have powdered
milk over fresh milk and vice versa. Moreover, the reasons behind their preferences have been
decided to be analyzed. Garnier et al. (2016, p.79) has cited that majority if the people get
attracted towards the processed milks and other dairy products because of the looks and
packaging. Moreover, the advertisements of products also play a very important role in making
the products famous and preferable among customers as compared to fresh products.
Task 1.2 Business Functions
Cattle Maintenance
According to the Livestock Management, it is very important for the farm owners to look after
the cattle in terms of their health and milk production. The Precise Livestock Farming methods
are being popularly used by many farms around Australia. This includes the ArchiFarm too. The
health levels and any sign of sickness are detected by some specialized sensors that are attached
to the ears of the cows. These sensors make sure that the proper reading is given to the control
and monitoring system related to temperature, pulse rate and blood flow pressure of the cows
(Plunkett et al. 2017, p.187). In case, the cows are found with some infection and sickness, they
are kept at separate cowsheds with some special care and attention.
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Proper maintenance of cattle is very essential to make the production more efficient and more
deliverable as per the requirements. As per Taylor and Eckard (2016, p.489), the prevention of
any disease by the veterinary doctors is a better and comparatively cheaper option than getting
the cows treated when ill. Hence, an economic amount needs to be spent on the health care of
cows in order to avoid the overall process more complicated and unnecessarily expensive. The
breeding of cows is also very important so that the normal production of milk can be maintained.
A cow should be made to deliver a calf once is a year in order to maintain the significant level of
milk production.
Milk Extraction
The Milk extraction is done in the ArchiFarm with the usage of milk extracting machines. These
machines are attached to the milk producing glands of cows and then the milk is sucked out of
their body. The milk is then collected in a container and taken for further processing. The current
procedure that is being used in milk extraction process does not include the testing of milk
quality immediately after taking it out of the cows’ body. As opined by Jeyaruban et al. (2016,
p.981), the milk processing needs to be immediately followed by the testing and purification
process. As per the current process of milk extraction, it takes time for testing the milk and if any
sample of milk is found to be infected or impure, a whole lot is rejected. This causes wastage of
milk and as a result, the producers and farm owners have to either reduce their profit margin or
have to increase the cost of their milk products.
Hence, the management of ArchiFarm has decided that new systems will be installed in the milk
extraction process. The Livestock Management principles and methods to detect any impurity in
the milk will be used. As per Eady et al. (2016, p.221), there are machines that are used to
extract milk as well as test the purity levels immediately. There is an inbuilt multi sensor device
including lactometer that is attached with milk extraction apparatus. This helps the extracting
workers and monitoring people to detect the purity level of milk instantly and reject the
necessary amount in the early stage to avoid damage of huge quantity of milk.
Work Supervision and Better facilitation
In order to ensure proper working of all the facilities at a dairy farm, it is very important to
ensure that the supervision of all the works that are being carried out at the different workplaces
are is done properly. As mentioned by Cerri et al. (2016, p.2598), the supervision of a dairy farm
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includes checking of cows’ health and keeping an eye on their milk production capacity.
Moreover, the different aspects like cleanliness of cow sheds, looking after the infrastructure and
quality of food given to the cows, medicine and other special care for the sick cows are some of
the facilities that are supposed to be taken care of while they are ill.
The supervision of all the work processes is properly taken care of at the ArchiFarm in an
adequate manner. However, there are some amendments that are supposed to be made in the
supervision techniques. The Precise Livestock Farming technology based devices are to be
installed to the ears of the cattle. This gives early signals of all the possible internal details like
blood pressure, body temperature and heart beats.
Transportations through better means
The transportation of milk from one location to other inside a country is a very complicated task
as it needs to be done with utmost care and precision. As cited by East et al. (2016, p.7), there
are some of the vehicles that have got very old and too bad for usage. The management has
decided that these vehicles will be replaced and new vehicles will be inducted that has sufficient
fuel efficient mileage. The cost that is spent on transportation of milk in a preserved container is
very high that leads to the increase in production cost of the overall products.
The new vehicles that have better fuel efficiency have to be I inducted in the transportation
sector of this particular business. In addition, the discussion of initiating a self-chain for
transportation that is autonomous from the different departments is under the process. Hence, it
can be said that the implementation of Livestock Farming technologies in transportation is
certainly going to enhance the efficiency of the milk that is produced in the dairy farms.
Efficient Record Keeping
The efficient Record keeping is very important so that the different parameters and aspects can
be easily found and processed. Following are some of the records that are maintained at the
control rooms of each monitoring team.
Total number of cows at the Victoria Branch: 2,500
Total number of lactating cows: 2,100
Amount of milk produced by each cow in the farm every day on an average: 10 liters
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Hence total amount of milk that produced: 21,000 liters
Cost of one liter of milk: 2.4 AUD
Hence, Cost of total milk produced per day: 2.4 * 21,000 = 50,400 AUD
Total expenses on facilities like transportation, storage, device calibration, testing per day
Cow Food: 9,400 AUD
Milk Extraction: 600 AUD
Storage: 3,000 AUD
Preservation: 1,000 AUD
Transportation: 6,000 AUD
Device Calibration: 400 AUD
Average daily wages to all the workers: 6,000 AUD
Total Expenses for everyday: 600 + 3,000 + 1,000 + 6,000 + 400 + 9,400 = 26,400 AUD
Hence, daily profit for ArchiFarm: 50,400 – 26,400 = 24,000 AUD
In case there are some cows that need medical attention, there will be separate expenses for the
cows.
Average cost for medical attention for one cow: 1,200 AUD
Let us consider that there are 10 cows that are sick from the lot of lactating cows.
Hence, reduction in milk production: 10 * 10 = 100 liters
Expenses behind cows for medical attention: 1,200 * 10 = 12,000
Hence, reduction in production sale: 100 * 2.4 = 240 AUD
Total reduction = 12,000 + 240 = 12,240 AUD
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Final value of daily profit in case there are 10 ill cows among the lactating cows:
24,000 – 12,240 = 11,760 AUD
It can be seen that the profit margin has tremendously decreased from 24,000 AUD to just
11,760 AUD per day.
These are the essential records that are kept using the Precise Livestock Farming software. The
best thing about this technique of recordkeeping is that the only thing a user needs to do is to
enter the data inside the required spaces (Wiedemann et al. 2016, p.128). The calculations are
automatically done and the important notifications are automatically displayed on the screen
Task 1.3 Business Processes
Health Monitoring of Cattle
It has been observed in the above calculations that the deprivation in the health of cows lead to
the reduction of milk production by a tremendous scale. Hence, the management of ArchiFarm
has decided to monitor the health of cows using advanced methods of health monitoring of cattle.
According to Hayes et al. (2016, p.906), there are certain techniques used in Precise Livestock
Farming that can predict the condition of cows in the upcoming few days. This helps the farm
owners to take precautionary steps to ensure that the cattle’s health is taken care of well before
time so that the quality and quantity of milk is not hampered.
Milk testing and Preservation
The milk testing and preservation has to be very precisely done so that the different types of
germs and bacteria that are present in milk can be removed. As per Greiner (2016, p.19), one of
the most important process to do this is the pasteurization. In this particular process, milk is
heated to its boiling temperature and then cooled down to just above its freezing point. This
sudden change in the temperature and internal configuration of milk does not give the bacteria to
reproduce. This further helps the process of preserving go smoother. If the milk is properly
pasteurized, it is very easy for the workers to store it for a longer time and transport it to different
locations around the country. Moreover, the different milk products can be made out of the
pasteurized milk in a much easier manner than by any other means.
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Contract Supply and Dealing
The most important part for enhancing the business as per the current scenario is the contract
supply and dealing with other vendors. The different vendors that are associated with the
ArchiFarm in terms of business and profits need to come together and study as well as analyze
the market conditions very precisely. As stated by Young et al. (2016, p.827), the careful
analysis of all the aspects that maneuver the market conditions make it very easy for the farm
owners to predict the amount of sale that is likely to happen. In addition to this, the advertising of
the fresh and pure milk products is also very important. This will help the common population
know more about the different benefits that they are going to experience if they purchase milk
from farms instead of supermarkets. The deals with contractors need to be made very carefully
so that the terms and conditions of any contract are significantly in favor of both the parties.
Alternatives to make operations more Cost Effective
In order to ensure the sustainable growth of this business, it is very important for the
management level authorities to find the areas that can possibly underperform along with their
possible alternatives. This is an important part of the marketing strategy as this helps the owners,
dealers and other stakeholders to analyze the risks and make their strategies flexible as per the
requirements (Eady et al. 2016, p.227). Moreover, the cost effectiveness of the complete process
can be ensured by reducing unnecessary wastage of funds in areas like using old vehicles,
outdated machines and heavy software for operations.
The ArchiFarm also needs to keep in mind the Livestock management techniques and
fundamentals to maintain a sustainable growth to its organization. In addition, the company has
to e very careful about the packaging and some possible discounts for ensuring that maximum
possible customers are attracted towards their products. The manufacturing and selling of
different varieties of milk products also needs to be done along with attractive packaging. This
includes the making of cheese, butter, cottage cheese and many other attractive and healthy dairy
products. The packaging should clearly mention all the ingredients used in making the products.
Conclusion
After the successful completion of the study, it can be said that the up gradation of the old
techniques of cattle farming and milk production needs to be replaced by the new ones. The
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report has described the different things that can be used for making the profit margin grow
without any kind of compromise in the quality of milk produced by any cow. This has included
the different techniques that are likely to be used or are available as an option to be used by cattle
farmers and dairy producers. The different stakeholders and drives that directly the firms have
been mentioned here along the rules and responsibilities that are performed by them. This report
has also included the different business factors and their profit margin on the overall business.
The current scenario of the ArchiFarm has been talked about along with the proper alternatives
that can be used for making the production more efficient as well as cost effective. The usage of
Precise Livestock Farming has been done in order to ensure that the records are being kept in a
properly organized manner. This has also included the different calculations related to the
recordkeeping of cattle farms.
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Reference List
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