Precision Dairy Management System

Profitable UK dairy farmers achieve competitiveness through efficiency gains thus meeting
the challenge of producing quality food, meeting the needs of the market while minimising
their impact on resources and the environment. The best measure of economic efficiency at
the farm level is net margin per litre of milk produced. This measure captures the effect of
both technical, cost and scale efficiency and is therefore an attractive high level benchmark to
use across production systems. The latest information from DairyCo’s MilkBench+ data base
is that the variation in this measure of efficiency is large, with a difference of 12 ppl between
the 25% highest net margin producers and the 25% lowest margin producers. This constitutes
a significant opportunity for a large number of farmers to increase profits, production and
sustainability.
This project will develop an internet based service for dairy farmers and their approved
advisors to manage dairy farm performance. The service will consist of three elements: (1) a
sophisticated farm management tool on which users will record a structured set of data to be
stored online. This unique system will allow point of use data capture of all physical and
financial inputs to the business. 2) the programme will provide analysis for weekly, monthly
and annual performance reviews in real time (3) the web service will also provide an
analytical tool for users to carry out their own analysis. This part of the service is aimed at
advisers. The project requires significant development and will provide a step change in the
way farmers and advisors are able to use data on farm.
The management tool that this project will develop aims to equip 21st century farmers to meet
the challenges of the next decade, satisfying an increasing world demand for food while
minimising the impact of production on natural resources