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Data, sensors and Wi-Fi are merged with the goal of optimizing milk production.

Chris Torres, Editor, American Agriculturist

November 3, 2021

3 Min Read
farmer using smart phone to access app in barn
INTELLIGENT BARN: With sensors and other hardware that can capture environmental conditions in the Turntide Intelligent Barn, producers can access all that data through a smartphone or tablet.Courtesy of VES-Artex

Will dairy go the way of poultry and swine with more automated barns?

VES-Artex is betting on it with the launch of its Turntide Intelligent Barn. Powered by the company’s DairyBos system, which was launched late last year, its capabilities have been enhanced with the addition of sensors and other hardware that can capture environmental conditions in barns — ammonia, temperature, humidity and wind — and putting that data into the DairyBos system, all with the goal of helping a producer better control the environment for optimal milk production.

With computing power getting faster and more broadband internet in rural areas, Mark Doornik, the company’s vice president of product management, says it opens the door for the company to develop even more smart products, such as smart headlocks, pens and other things.

“Which sounds crazy, but it’s applying the technology to do it smart and connecting the system,” he says.

DairyBos was launched in late 2020 with its initial selling point being the ability to remotely control fans in barns. Turntide Technologies, the California-based parent company of VES-Artex, developed the Smart Motor System that powers those fans.

But it’s just the first part of what Doornik says is the company’s goal to automate and optimize more “back of the barn” systems, from flush systems, scrapers, lights and fans, and merge those with already automated systems such as milking parlors, milk meters and other things, all with the goal of optimizing systems for milk production.

Compared to other industries like poultry and swine that have adopted automated technologies for optimizing animal growth, Doornik says the dairy industry is far behind.

"These environments need to be more responsive and predictable because we know what happens when certain environmental things happen. Feed can be late, mixes can be wrong, things like that,” he says. "I think the dairy industry is behind some of the other species, let's say poultry and swine, poultry for sure. The way they've integrated and figured those things out in terms of building barns that can adapt to what's going on in the environment is something I see dairy getting into. We have to apply that to dairy, and we haven't yet.”

Intelligent animal

Although the Turntide Intelligent Barn was just launched at World Dairy Expo, Doornik says the company is already looking to its next big project: the intelligent animal.

He says the company is in discussions with Alltech, Nedap and others on ways to integrate cow Fitbits and other technologies to automate systems based on how cows are reacting to the barn environment. So if it’s too hot or too cold, the system would automatically adjust itself based on how the cows are performing.

“Their technologies can make ours even better, and theirs even better, because the cow can tell us when she's not in heat stress, or in heat stress. So now … her body turns down the air conditioning," Doornik says.

Ross Boettcher, spokesman for VES-Artex, says more automation will give farmers time to be better managers and give the industry more tools to become more sustainable.

“In a lot of ways, it’s helping people and animals be more sustainable, but sustainable toward profitability — maximizing profitability, water and energy consumption,” he says.

About 50 farms nationwide operate the DairyBos system, Boettcher says, the majority of which are retrofits of existing barns.

The company markets DairyBos through its existing dealership network. For more information, visit ves.co.

About the Author(s)

Chris Torres

Editor, American Agriculturist

Chris Torres, editor of American Agriculturist, previously worked at Lancaster Farming, where he started in 2006 as a staff writer and later became regional editor. Torres is a seven-time winner of the Keystone Press Awards, handed out by the Pennsylvania Press Association, and he is a Pennsylvania State University graduate.

Torres says he wants American Agriculturist to be farmers' "go-to product, continuing the legacy and high standard (former American Agriculturist editor) John Vogel has set." Torres succeeds Vogel, who retired after 47 years with Farm Progress and its related publications.

"The news business is a challenging job," Torres says. "It makes you think outside your small box, and you have to formulate what the reader wants to see from the overall product. It's rewarding to see a nice product in the end."

Torres' family is based in Lebanon County, Pa. His wife grew up on a small farm in Berks County, Pa., where they raised corn, soybeans, feeder cattle and more. Torres and his wife are parents to three young boys.

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