Issue link: https://htpgraphics.uberflip.com/i/464860
THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW Highlighting best practice 46 | DELAVAL animal welfare, farm profitability, the environment and social responsibility. We strive to reduce the environmental footprint of our farms while contributing to increasing food production and profitably in a way that does not compromise animal-welfare issues and takes into account the wellbeing of the people involved. The future of automation in dairy farming Like dairy farmers, DeLaval is a part of a value chain that needs to ensure food safety and security, and we believe that we can achieve this by providing innovative products. It is estimated that by 2050 the global population will have risen to 9 billion people. This increase in population will not be without its challenges, and food production will have to double to meet demand. As the price of land and labour increases, the dairy industry will require more farm-management solutions: automation will be a must for a thriving dairy operation. The current average herd size among the 11,500 dairy farms in the UK is 125, leading many to wonder how UK dairy farmers will be able to compete once the CAP reforms are implemented in 2015. The World Life Fund has stated that in the next 40 years the food-production industry will have to supply more food than it has in the past 8000 years. It may be a difficult task to predict the future of milk prices but we are pretty sure that the work of dairy farmers will continue to be hugely significant. Small and medium-sized farms will be just as vital to the agricultural economy as larger ones. Precision farming through automation Although the discussion of automation has tended to focus on milk extraction, there can also be large benefits in focusing on other aspects of dairy farming. Automation has many benefits, as it can reduce the time spent on hard labour, making it possible to be able to dedicate time to intelligent work focused on the animals. Through accurate recording of animal performance and the use of integrated milking and feeding solutions with a product such as the DeLaval DelPro (an integrated dairy management system) farmers can very quickly identify ill health and act to remedy it. Two areas where automation can contribute to huge improvements on a farm are in the care of calves and the process of feeding. Apart from breeding, feeding and management are crucial factors when it comes to increasing milk yield, and even more important when it comes to improving fertility. There is a strong correlation between the events that take place during the first few months of a calf's life and its fertility prospects, thus determining its productivity in the future. By evaluating and optimising his or her calf-management protocol, a farmer could increase the milk yield of a cow by as much as 20%, and we invite farmers to consider the true cost of their current calf-management practices. Approximately 20% of a dairy farm's heifers are lost due to calf mortality. However, this need not be the case, and can be remedied by taking measures early on, for example through the weaning of calves. Rapid weaning, which is typical in conventional farming, usually results in the loss of a calf's weight gain accumulated since birth. This weight loss (even if regained at a later stage) has consequences on productivity and profitability, and the same is true if a calf contracts a virus and then recovers. A cow that has as the price of land and labour increases, the dairy industry will require more farm- management solutions " " The DeLaval headquarters at Tumba, near Stockholm