SMARTFEED - Smart measurements in cattle feeding and health

Project: SMARTFEED - Smart measurements in cattle feeding and health [ÄLYREHU] EIP-AGRI Operational Group

Duration: 1.1.2018 - 31.8.2020

Funding: Rural Development Programme for Mainland Finland 2014–2020, operational groups of European innovation partnership (EIP) in agriculture. Project budget is 319 818 €, of which European program funding covers 42 %.

Objectives: Project aims to develop methods, tools and analytics for monitoring cattle silage quality and energy and protein nutrition balance of dairy cows on-site at farms. The developed measurement solutions will include data transfer and storage in a central database to facilitate efficient utilization of measurement results. The ultimate aim is to decrease feeding costs, improve productivity and cattle health, and make farmers’ daily work less time-consuming.

Actions: Project will

a) test a handheld device for monitoring nutritional value of growing grass and to support determination of optimal harvesting time for fodder;

b) develop a tool for easy silage sample collection;

c) develop a quick on-farm method to facilitate regular monitoring of dry matter content in silage to secure correct mixing ratio with bought-in feed;

d) develop biosensors for analysis of nutritional markers in milk to enable monitoring of nutritional balance of individual cows and their response on feeding;

e) develop data transfer of measurement results to a central database

Project Coordinator: University of Oulu, Unit of Measurement Technology

Partners: ProAgria Kainuu Rural Advisory Services (beneficiary), MTech Digital Solutions Ltd, Semes Ltd, eight pilot farms and a local veterinarian

Research Group: Unit of Measurement Technology

Contact person: Project researcher Tuija Kallio, +358 50 346 8908, firstname.lastname@oulu.fi

Home page: https://kainuu.proagria.fi/hankkeet/alyrehu