A Simplified Daily Fit Model to Reduce Costs and Nutrient Intake in Growing-Finishing Pigs.

Precision feeding is an excellent alternative to conventional phase feeding systems for growing-finishing pigs, especially with increasing feeding costs and environmental sustainability concerns. However, precision feeding strategies sometimes require advanced technologies such as electronic devices and the modernization of pig facilities. In addition to hardware implementation, precision feeding is frequently related to mathematical difficulties due to a lack of professionals trained in decision making.

The DairyPrint model: A decision support model to help dairy farmers and other stakeholders toward improved sustainability.

Dairy farmers face increasing pressure to reduce GHG emissions (i.e., carbon dioxide, CO; methane, CH; and nitrous oxide, NO), but measuring on-farm GHG emissions directly is costly or impractical.

Comparison of behavior, thermoregulation, and growth of pair-housed versus individually housed calves in outdoor hutches during continental wintertime.

Cold stress negatively affects the welfare of calves in outdoor hutches. No studies have examined the potential benefits of pair housing calves to buffer against cold stress. Our study evaluated the effects of pair versus individual housing on thermoregulatory, behavioral, and growth performance responses of calves in outdoor hutches during a Wisconsin continental winter.

Effect of different air speeds at cow resting height in freestalls on heat stress responses and resting behavior in lactating cows in Wisconsin.

Heat abatement (e.g., soakers, fans) effectively reduces the negative physiological and production effects of heat stress, but no previous studies have documented effective interventions for the reduced lying times observed in response to hot weather.

A Standard Procedure for In Vitro Digestion Using Rumen Fermenters: A Collaborative Study.

Our objective was to propose and evaluate a standard procedure for the evaluation of in vitro dry matter digestibility for ruminant feeds, using artificial fermenters. A collaborative study was performed with seven feed analysis laboratories and four feeds (Tifton 85 hay, corn silage, soybean hulls, and soybean meal). Two types of artificial fermenters were evaluated (DaisyII Ankom and TE-150 Tecnal).

Diet crude protein reduction on follicular fluid and cumulus-oocyte complexes of mid-lactating Girolando cows.

This study evaluated the effect of crude protein (CP) reduction in four diets (156, 139, 132, and 127 g Kg DM) maintaining constant metabolizable protein (188 g/day) on the follicular fluid and cumulus-oocyte complexes of mid-lactating Girolando cows. Twenty-two Girolando cows with average of 21.55 ±3.

Addressing Data Bottlenecks in the Dairy Farm Industry.

A survey to explore the challenges and opportunities for dairy farm data management and governance was completed by 73 farmers and 96 non-farmers. Although 91% of them find data sharing beneficial, 69% are unfamiliar with data collection protocols and standards, and 66% of farmers feel powerless over their data chain of custody. Although 58% of farmers share data, only 19% of them recall having signed a data share agreement.

Integrated Decision Support Systems (IDSS) for Dairy Farming: A Discussion on How to Improve Their Sustained Adoption.

Dairy farm decision support systems (DSS) are tools which help dairy farmers to solve complex problems by improving the decision-making processes. In this paper, we are interested in newer generation, integrated DSS (IDSS), which additionally and concurrently: (1) receive continuous data feed from on-farm and off-farm data collection systems and (2) integrate more than one data stream to produce insightful outcomes. The scientific community and the allied dairy community have not been successful in developing, disseminating, and promoting a sustained adoption of IDSS.