“■ Pipeline
M.IWW*
i
AFLOPPY
DISK MIND
After attending the recent Penn
State Dairy Computer Conference,
my mind feels like a floppy disk,
spinning around in the dark con
fines! of a computer.
The countless opportunities for
the application of computer
technology to agriculture, the
maze of hardware and software
that exists in the market place
and the uncertainty as to what is or
isn’t good and what is or isn’t
useful, the incompatibilities
between hardware and software,
and the many new developments
that are on the horizon just boggle
my mind!
This is not meant to be negative;
in fact, it depicts the exciting time
that we live in. The explosion of
computer technology for home and
family business use has been so
rapid that we’ve experienced a
general lack of direction to the
overall confusion. But, that is
changing.
We are starting to see some
standards emerging in the in
dustry. Many farm organizations
and industries are announcing the
direction they are heading, and as
such, are pulling many followers
with them. They have had some
time now to develop some really
good software to make-up for what
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was lacking in the market place; in
so doing, they may help rid the
market place of some of its chaff.
But, we’ve only begun!
The entire dairy industry has
benefitted from computer
technology already. Just think
where we’d be today had it not
been for DHIA and sire sum
maries. We’ve made great genetic
advancement, thanks to com
puters, DHIA, AI and all the
dedicated people that make the
system work.
But, that’s in for some changes,
too. We live in a fast world, and in
today’s tight and changing
economy we want instant answers
to questions about management
decisions. The technology for
providing some of these answers
exists now and more is on the
horizon.
Imagine your barn sheet data
being transmitted from a super
visor’s hand-held computer to the
main computer at a processing
center, the data immediately
processed (except for SCC, fat test
and protein test), and the com
puted records immediately sent
down to your computer where you
can review it and call up the
various herd reports you need for
quick management decisions.
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Extension
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Agent
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With automatic cow iden
tification and milk recording
devices you can record cows’
actual production, and from this
computer actual or projected
lactation records—if the recorder
can talk directly to your farm
computer, and if cows can be
identified accurately. Some of
these recorders will be able to
measure electrical conductivity of
milk as a way of signaling udder
infection. So, at each milking you
can flag out cows that are off milk
or in the early stages of infection.
By monitoring cows’ activity, or
temperature, you may also be able
to flag out cows coming in heat or
cows that are becoming ill.
We already see a lot of computer
feeders being used. Wouldn’t it be
nice if you could get a computer to
balance a cow’s ration daily on the
basis of her daily production, her
stage of lactation, and perhaps her
fat test and body weight too? It
may soon come to be.
Computerized
Feeders
Properly managed, com
puterized feeders have been cost
effective on many farms. Com
puters can be programmed to
dispense precise amounts of feed
to individual cows at various in
crements throughout the day.
Some can also record the amount
of feed dispensed and flag cows
that are off fed. But, for good
results, the computer has to be
programmed properly for each
cow and adjusted when necessary.
The cow has to consume the feed,
and the equipment has to be func
tional.
Workers at Illinois have found
that for best results, the maximum
number of cows per stall should be
about 25. Above this, cows have
more of a tendency to eat less than
what has been programmed for
them. Leaving 1 to 2 empty stalls
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between each feeding stall also
enhanced intake.
Cows tended to visit the feeders
24 hours of the day, but the use of a
night light over the feeding stalls
may encourage more even usage
of the feeders. They also observed
that first lactation heifers made 2
to 3 times more trips to the feeder
in a day’s time than did fourth
lactation cows. As you might ex
pect from the above figures,
heifers spent more time loitering
in the feeders than did the older
cows.
I mentioned before that proper
ration balancing and program
ming is essential. The Illinois
workers found that balancing the
ration once a month generally was
satisfactory for most cows in a
herd. However, cows n the first
eight weeks of lactation did
respond to having their ration
balanced twice monthly.
So often, we program our rations
with the assumption that all cows
receive the same amount of
forage-which is not the case.
Forage intake will vary con
siderably with body size and level
of grain feeding.
When the Illinois group com
pensated for variations in forage
intake, they got an even greater
response from individualized
feeding, using a computer feeder.
We would do well to keep this
concept in mind as we feed our
herds, whether we use computer
feeders or now!
Grouping cows will give you
some flexibility in varying the
forage portion of the ration as
needed. Another group that could
also benefit from a computer
feeder is the dry cow group.
Linking Computers
Many of these computers, such
as ones dedicated to feeding cows,
recording milk, monitoring ac
tivity, or used by supervisors to
gather DHIA data, can function as
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stand-alone units-or they can be
hooked up to talk to the farm
computer.
Information fed to the farm
computers by these stand-along
units, plus information keyed in by
the farmer, or downloaded from
another computer (perhaps
DHIA’s or some other computer on
a network system), can be used by
the farmer to generate a variety of
reports he needs such as: cows to
be checked, treated, vaccinated,
bred, dried off, etc. He can get a
list of cows or heifers meeting
specs for various buyers or print
out a pedigree. He can analyze how
daughters of certain bulls do in his
herd or when to cull cows. He can
generate tax reports, cash flow
projections, profit and loss or net
worth statements, etc. A good crop
and machinery program can help
him stay on top of machinery costs
and maintenance schedules, or
help him evaluate crop varieties,
herbicides, fertility practices,
individual fields, etc.
Networking
Various networking services are
being offered. By use of telephone
lines, and in the future direct lines
or satellites, you can link up to
data banks and programs on other
computers to get such things as:
access to your own DHIA records,
sire summaries, market reports,
etc.
These usually offer ease of use,
and they help reduce the need for
you to buy your own software and
to keep your data base up-to-date.
But, many of them do have sub
scription and user fees.
The list of possibilities, like a
Christmas shopping list, is almost
endless. We can dream of all these
possibilities, but the reality of
time, our abilities, our needs and
our dollars will dictate what we
should do and can do.
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