Mastellone Hnos, General Rodriguez BA 1748, Argentina.
DairyNZ, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand.
J Dairy Sci. 2018 Jun;101(6):5466-5473. doi: 10.3168/jds.2017-13324. Epub 2018 Mar 7.
An increase in the average herd size on Australian dairy farms has also increased the labor and animal management pressure on farmers, thus potentially encouraging the adoption of precision technologies for enhanced management control. A survey was undertaken in 2015 in Australia to identify the relationship between herd size, current precision technology adoption, and perception of the future of precision technologies. Additionally, differences between farmers and service providers in relation to perception of future precision technology adoption were also investigated. Responses from 199 dairy farmers, and 102 service providers, were collected between May and August 2015 via an anonymous Internet-based questionnaire. Of the 199 dairy farmer responses, 10.4% corresponded to farms that had fewer than 150 cows, 37.7% had 151 to 300 cows, 35.5% had 301 to 500 cows; 6.0% had 501 to 700 cows, and 10.4% had more than 701 cows. The results showed that farmers with more than 500 cows adopted between 2 and 5 times more specific precision technologies, such as automatic cup removers, automatic milk plant wash systems, electronic cow identification systems and herd management software, when compared with smaller farms. Only minor differences were detected in perception of the future of precision technologies between either herd size or farmers and service providers. In particular, service providers expected a higher adoption of automatic milking and walk over weighing systems than farmers. Currently, the adoption of precision technology has mostly been of the type that reduces labor needs; however, respondents indicated that by 2025 adoption of data capturing technology for monitoring farm system parameters would be increased.
澳大利亚奶牛场平均畜群规模的增加也增加了农民的劳动力和动物管理压力，因此可能鼓励采用精确技术来增强管理控制。2015 年在澳大利亚进行了一项调查，以确定畜群规模、当前精确技术采用率以及对未来精确技术的看法之间的关系。此外，还调查了农民和服务提供商之间对未来精确技术采用率的看法差异。2015 年 5 月至 8 月期间，通过匿名互联网问卷收集了 199 名奶牛场主和 102 名服务提供商的回复。在 199 名奶牛场主的回复中，有 10.4%的农场奶牛数量少于 150 头，37.7%的农场奶牛数量为 151 至 300 头，35.5%的农场奶牛数量为 301 至 500 头，6.0%的农场奶牛数量为 501 至 700 头，10.4%的农场奶牛数量超过 701 头。结果表明，与规模较小的农场相比，拥有 500 头以上奶牛的农民采用了 2 到 5 倍的特定精确技术，例如自动挤奶器、自动牛奶厂清洗系统、电子奶牛识别系统和 herd management software。无论是畜群规模还是农民和服务提供商，对未来精确技术的看法差异都很小。特别是，服务提供商预计自动挤奶和走地称重系统的采用率会高于农民。目前，精确技术的采用主要是减少劳动力需求的类型；然而，受访者表示，到 2025 年，用于监测农场系统参数的数据捕获技术的采用率将会增加。
