Gatton Research Dairy dashboard

Imagine being able to manage all aspects of your dairy farm via the one easy-to-understand management tool?

The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) and University of Queensland are working together to produce a Dairy Dashboard that will help producers manage their farms with greater efficiency.

The technology

The Dairy Dashboard is a web-based interface which collates real-time streaming data from IoT devices across the dairy farm, combining it with feed and milk production data.

A network of IoT sensors such as weather stations, rain gauges, soil moisture sensors, and sensors contained in cow collars and the dairy shed provide valuable environmental, agronomic and animal production data.

Integrating the data into the one dashboard will assist producers make informed and measurable management decisions.

The first iteration of the Dairy Dashboard was developed in 2018.

The team will continue to work on improving their understanding of the data interactions and how best to visualise these to create a precision management system using the Gatton Research Dairy as a case study.

Benefits for agribusiness

Currently, producers can monitor aspects of their farming system via packaged sensor systems, but these independent systems do not readily share data, limiting benefits.

The Dairy Dashboard will combine data from many aspects of the farming system into the one platform to assist producers manage their dairy with accurate and timely information.

Next steps

DAF will continue to work with the Gatton Research Dairy to test the proof of concept and look to engage with a small number of farms to perfect the platform. The final product will see producers accessing the dashboard via the internet to have data processed and see practical representations of that data on their smart phone, tablet or computer on a continuous basis.