Dairy

Objectives

The RILab Dairy aims

  • to integrate EO data related to agricultural parameters, focusing on the production of animal feed crops, with in-situ sensor data collected in the dairy chain, ranging from feed production to the measurement of milk quality.
  • to gather meaningful data and develop services for the dairy chain that facilitate agri-environmental monitoring and improve the overall efficiency.
  • to reduce the amount of in-situ data required for planning and control purposes by establishing correlations with EO data.

Utilizing these correlations, EO data can serve as a basis for monitoring, planning and control in regions, specially where in-situ data may be lacking.

Technology / Methodology

The different datasets related to dairy shall be analyzed and correlated, focusing on indicators that are relevant for dairy farm performance.

The goal is

  • to explore methods using EO data, particularly through regional correlation of milk quality and data obtained from hyperspectral imaging.
  • to adopt models that enable forecasting and simulation while facilitating adaptation via optimization criteria. 
  • to scale these models for extended usage of EO and reduced reliance on in-situ data in different regions.
  • to integrate data from dairy farmers, arable/crop activities, feed producers, and dairy sales projections.

Expected outcome

  • New digital services that combine EO data with in-situ data collected at the farm site and throughout the dairy chain.
  • Modules that enable the collection, aggregation, analysis and provision of data.
  • Digital services designed to be integrated with existing platform solutions used by various stakeholders.
  • Digital services developed by the RIL to provide contextual delivery of information and knowledge for decision support.

Partners

Lab partners:

  • ATB Institute for Applied Systems Technology Bremen GmbH - Applied Research
  • DMK Deutches Milchkontor GmbH - Germany's largest dairy cooperative
  • OHB Digital Services GmbH - Provider of digital services, specially making use of satellite data

Application area

Target crops: Grassland

Target areas: Germany