Chain cooperation as a critical success factor in Smart Dairy Farming

The Dutch Smart Dairy Farming (SDF) consortium works on proof of concept and on development of sensors, IT infrastructure, decision models and work instructions designed to support dairy farmers and farm advisors in extending the lifespan of their cows. Various companies (chain partners Friesland Campina, CRV and Agrifirm), IT companies and SMEs, knowledge institutions (WUR, TNO, UU, VHL) and dairy farmers are working together on the development of these innovative tools in the area of animal health, fertility and nutrition. For successful development of these tools, a platform is required to make real-time sensor data from different farms available to model developers. The data must be made available via a standard interface on an open platform in real time at the individual animal level. The concept of an InfoBroker is considered a breakthrough when it comes to making data stored in diverse places available in an efficient manner. The InfoBroker is capable of retrieving individual cow data from an unlimited number of sources while at the same time serving a large number of models on-demand. In the InfoBroker, the data which may be released are specified for each farm. This means that the farmer always stays in control. This consortium has already been working together for 4 years. This paper describes cooperation throughout the chain and the approach taken, pointing out that this is a critical factor in the uptake of smart farming.