Progress report for EDS24-070
Project Information
Economic viability and labor shortages are consistently listed in the top three issues cited by dairy farmers and represent significant challenges for farmer well-being and farm sustainability. While the industry and academia partners work on building a more resilient industry through improved management and workforce development projects, technology offers another means by which to mitigate labor issues and improve dairy farm viability. Technology is a large, overarching term in the dairy industry that describes advancements in artificial intelligence, automation, precision monitoring, and robust data set interpretation while potentially allowing for reduced human labor capital, improved animal oversight, and more effective environmental resource utilization. Example technologies include systems for animal health monitoring, reproductive attentions, methane digesters, digital identification and tracking, and automated systems for calf and cow feeding and cow milking. However, technological adoption is not advancing at the same rate among certain dairy communities as technological innovation. Adoption trends vary greatly between farmers and are biased by age, years farming, size of operation, accessibility to technology support, and perceived benefits among others. Therefore, this project aims to 1) gauge the interest, hurdles, and bottlenecks with technology implementation on dairy farms in the Georgia, 2) provide workshops open to farmers in SSARE states on available technologies, methods for technology implementation, economic decision support, and potential funding resources for technology adoption, 3) allow for farmer exposure through on farm site visits to see technology at work and get farmer perspective on the pros, cons, and payback of their technology choices, and 4) develop peer farmer networks offer additional means of technology support and improve farmer well-being. These aims will be met by a pre- program survey, which will assess farmer perceptions and understanding. This survey will also identify specific areas of concentration for the educational curriculum. The survey will be followed by a workshop and farm visit series where the first series will focus on low financial input technologies and the second on higher financial input technologies. At the conclusion of each series, a post survey will capture changes in previous thoughts and potential to adopt technology. Though this project focuses on appropriate exposure and education of farmers, it is anticipated that educated decisions regarding increased technological adoption in the SSARE states has the potential to improve dairy farm economic viability, improve animal welfare, reduce environmental impacts
This project aims to identify and overcome barriers to technological adoption among dairy farmers in the SSARE states to improve farm sustainability with the following objectives:
- Identify regional challenges with technological adaptation on dairy farms.
- Educate and provide resources to dairy farmers effective implementation of technology through a collaborative workshop design.
- Expose farmers to technologies while exploring financial implications in an experiential farm visit.
- Develop peer farmer networks to enhance farmer resources, build technology support structures, and improve well-being in the dairy community.
- Evaluate the perceived pre/post program benefits to technology on farms as well as likelihood for technological implementation following program curriculum.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
The initial portion of this project, survey development and deployment will focus on all Georgia dairy farmers regardless of size, technological adaptation status, economic viability, etc. Georgia is chosen as a subset of the SSARE region in which to focus to allow on farm visits for survey data collection. These on-site visits will maximize farmer return and investment in the project and its outcomes. The previous statement is supported by prior work in this area.
The educational components of this project are open to all farmers in the SSARE region. Information regarding workshop components, dates, and locations will be disseminated through regional contacts at academic institutions as well as groups that service the commodity group. Though the intended, target audience is dairy farmers other livestock farmers will be welcome to attend. This welcoming is the realization that much can be learned from partnering livestock commodities and crossing over in network development an important part for building industry wide support.
Further programmatic dissemination includes the outline and resources utilized. The intentions of the PI are to outline a program in a systematic manner that will allow for duplication by other institutions. This will allow for greater dispersal of material and may allow access to audiences that were unable to make the workshop and farm visits.
The workshops (x 2) and farm visits (x 4) are offered as separately scheduled events. Time away from the farming operation is tricky for many farm operators especially smaller farms that might be more severely limited by labor; thus, intermittent days are chosen to achieve the objectives of this workshop. Given that most small farmers are in the northern part of the State and that this would give greater accessibility to neighboring states, the workshops and farm visits are planned for this area. However, exact farm locations may alter based on farmer and technology availability.
Materials created during workshops (handouts, powerpoints, etc.) will be digitized for housing on the UGA Dairy Team website. Resources and contact of industry partners as well as contact information will also be housed on this platform for easy access. Due to the nature and objectives of both the workshop and farm visits, the ability to record any materials is limited.
In addition to sharing workshop and farm site resources with academic partners at other land grant universities, results of pre/post surveys and programmatic elements will be submitted for publication to share processes and outcomes with a larger audience.
2025 Update Report:
New Cooperators
Ms. Marrissa Blackwell is a fundamental cooperator in this project as she aided with survey design and development. Having received graduate training in generating surveys that will yield valuable insights and usable results as well as methodologies to document impact, she is a vital component to the current project.
Mr. Bryce Trotter has served as a critical collaborator to producers in the state of Georgia. Through his more intimate connections as Executive Director of Georgia Milk Producers he has provided understanding of producer perceptions as well as helped with increasing visibility of the survey and program.
Colleagues at neighboring land grant universities have facilitated a broader net of distribution of the survey for greater understanding of regional perceptions.
Current Materials, Methods and Insights
The survey was developed in an attempt to gain understanding into producer perceptions regarding technology, barriers to adoption as well as where they source information regarding technology, both advancements and methods of implementation. Survey development and deployment have been very intentional. With a desire to capture a more diverse representation of the southeastern dairy producers, surveys were deployed to producers in Georgia during Fall 2024 and North Carolina, South Carolina and Kentucky dairy producers beginning January 1 of 2025. At present, we have thirty survey responses with a response rate of Georgia Producers of 27.8% and outside producers of <5%. At this time, I am working with state level contacts to in SC, NC and KY to distribute the survey using them as the sender source in an effort to increase the response rate. At this same time, I am working with these colleagues on program development following survey analysis.
Currently, survey responders are managers and/or owners with herd sizes ranging from 30 to 16,000 cows with most implementing some sort of technology. Of those using technology, most agree that it has made them more efficient and profitable as a dairy operation. They are least familiar with concepts around methane digesters and precision cropping systems. The greatest amount of information regarding technology comes to them by way of trade magazines, other dairymen and industry representatives. One of the major bottlenecks they foresee in technology use and adoption is not having the critical mass of people to service and support technology in the region.
One unforeseen issue that has surfaced since this project’s acceptance is the rise in HPAI cases and surveillance measures. While Georgia remains free of HPAI in dairy cows, the concern has become more tangible in recent months with novel spillover events. As part of this very fluid discussion and to minimize the potential threat to dairy herds, many are implements (rightly so) enhanced biosecurity measures. Part of these enhanced measures is to minimize traffic from outside visitors. This conversation as well as the USDAs National Milk Testing Strategy leaves producers in a state of self-preservation. Therefore, this project’s methodologies to meet the objectives are being rethought. Many producers no longer will receive outside non-farm visitors and are certainly hesitant to open their farm to other dairy farmers. Therefore, the method to disseminate information as well as to allow farmers to experience technologies may need to move to a more digital approach. Initially, the hope was that the concern regarding HPAI in the dairy industry would quiet quickly but the situation has only evolved an advanced in the past 12 months.