How Precision Feeding increases profitability

We bring back the article published in Informatore Zootecnico, written by Orlando Fortunato, which discusses Dinamica Generale’s technological solutions designed to increase farm productivity and sustainability within the framework of Industry 4.0.

Precision feeding enables livestock farms to improve productivity and sustainability. Here are some of the new technological solutions turning this technical approach into practice.

The primary objective of any livestock farm is to optimize the feeding process through the use of technology. Precision feeding systems are revolutionizing how feeding is managed on farms: they represent an evolution in mindset and routine operations across livestock enterprises worldwide, with the goal of increasing productivity and sustainability.

Dinamica Generale—active in 65 countries—has been a pioneer in advanced precision feeding technologies, with deep knowledge of the sector. The company offers systems designed to meet the needs of modern livestock farming with scalable and integrable solutions suitable for operations of all sizes: from basic weighing systems to those equipped with wireless data exchange, NIR analyzers installed on mixer wagons, and more.

All Dinamica Generale’s precision feeding systems are integrated with the DTM Core feeding management software. This cloud-based platform interfaces with the main dairy management and herd management systems, delivering reports and performance indicators that can also be viewed on smartphones. Through dedicated apps, it is possible to modify ration programs in real time while ensuring maximum data security and compliance with the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR 2018).

Considering that feed costs account for about 65% of total production costs, Dinamica Generale’s goal is to support farmers in choosing technologies that optimize costs and improve efficiency. These solutions help raise awareness around cost control, ingredient variability, ration consistency, and continuous performance monitoring through the IOFC indicator. Feed conversion efficiency (milk produced per dry matter intake) and IOFC (income over feed cost) are the key profitability metrics for dairy farms—hence the strategic importance of having a simple tool to monitor these aspects in real time.

The DTM Core software, integrated with dairy management tools and fed daily by data coming from the mixer wagon system, generates targeted reports that allow farmers to quickly act on strategic feeding aspects—taking immediate and informed decisions to safeguard efficiency, profitability, and animal health.

Rations under control thanks to NIR technology

Dinamica Generale’s NIR technology stems from more than twenty years of experience and expertise. Over the years, the company has continued to invest resources into developing a line of analyzers that is unmatched on the market in terms of application range and ability to meet the specific needs of global customers.

Efficiency, sustainability, and productivity are the three cornerstones of Dinamica Generale’s commercial offering. Using NIR analyzers on a daily basis allows farmers to constantly monitor the variability of silages and forages and to make immediate corrections to the ration—resulting in reduced costs and increased profits.

The benefits of Dinamica Generale’s NIR solution were confirmed by research conducted by Università Cattolica of Piacenza as part of the Filigrana project. The study involved 8 farms and a total of 1,880 lactating cows (with an average production of 32 kg/head/day).

The farms installed and tested the NIR analyzer provided by Dinamica Generale on self-propelled mixer wagons. Fully integrated with the weighing system, the analyzers proved essential for ensuring ingredient quality and improving ration consistency, leading to increased milk production and improved milk quality. The EVONIR analyzer—part of a patented system—allows real-time recalculation of the weight of each ingredient to be loaded based on the dry matter content measured during loading.

Higher profit margins

The most significant outcome of this precision feeding study relates to the increase in profit margin. The improvement ranged from 1.8 to 6.8 euro cents per kg of milk, with an average value of 3.8 cents/kg. These results clearly demonstrate that an NIR system installed on a self-propelled mixer wagon is a key technology for any farmer.

Looking at the farms involved in the project, the advantage was mainly linked to increased milk production for the same feed intake—resulting in improved efficiency. In summary, the study revealed:

• A reduction in sporadic or systematic operator errors during ingredient loading with the mixer wagon
• The near-elimination, during rainy periods, of the “moisture effect” in silages, which can alter ration composition and the daily dry matter delivered
• A reduction in the variability of daily refusals at the feedbunk
• At the metabolic level, increases in cholesterol, calcium, and phosphorus; and decreases in GOT and bilirubin—indicating that consistent diets have positive effects on animal health, especially during early lactation, the most critical phase for dairy cows

Data immediately available to the nutritionist

Since the system’s data is available in the cloud, nutritionists can instantly review the nutritional characteristics of all ingredients loaded into the mixer wagon and the actual quantities included in the TMR.

This facilitates timely ration adjustments, identification of errors in mixer wagon management, and prevention of potential issues caused by inconsistent or variable feeding—issues that would otherwise be impossible to detect without such technological systems.

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