Policy approaches for enhanced dairy sector innovation – a review of future pathways and policies for effective implementation of digital agriculture

Figures & data

Table 1. Examples of current and future digital innovations applicable to the NZ dairy sector (adapted from Eastwood et al. 2021).

Category	Current commercial applications in the dairy sector	Potential future application in the dairy sector
Sensors for data capture	Animal wearable sensors to measure activity, behaviour, rumination. Body condition score cameras and sensors.	Lameness sensors using imagery. Bio-metric sensors for animal health.
Automation and robotics	Robotic milking (using box-style robots or robotic rotaries), virtual fencing and herding. In-shed automation such as automated cluster removal, teat spraying, drafting, weighing and washing.	Retro-fitted robotic milking on existing milking platforms. Augmented and virtual reality for hands-free farm management and training.
Internet of things (IoT) and connectivity	Using low-bandwidth sensors connected to farm Wifi or LoRa IoT networks to measure milk temperature, milk flow, water usage, effluent application, soil moisture status, irrigation.	Fast data exchange using 5G or farm wifi networks, expanded use of high-resolution imagery for off-site computational analysis.
Cloud computing and data analytics	Data now being increasingly stored in cloud-based systems rather than farm-based hard drives. Enabling software as a service, rapid software updates and cloud-based analytics.	Future utilisation data at a farm and supply-chain level e.g. blockchain for efficiency and trust, digital twins, near-edge computing, and use of machine learning or AI for identifying complex patterns and novel solutions.

Figure 1. Policy and innovation approaches to enable digital agriculture in the NZ dairy sector (Key sources: Eastwood et al., 2022, 2023; Ingram et al., 2022; Kukk et al., 2022).

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