Integrated decision support systems (IDSS) for dairy farming: A discussion on how to improve their sustained adoption

Authors: BALDIN, MICHEL - Milc Group; BREUNIG, MARK - A-Ok Farms Llc; BREUNIG, TOM - Allflex Livestock; CUE, ROGER - McGill University - Canada; DE VRIES, ALBERT - University Of Florida; DOORNINK, MARK - Ves-Artex; DREVENAK, JAN - Sk Farms Partners; FOURDRAINE, ROBERT - Agsource, Inc; GEORGE, REGI - Nalytix; GOODLING, ROBERT - Pennsylvania State University; GREENFIELD, RANDALL - Vita Plus Corporation; Jorgensen, Matthew; LENKAITIS, ANDY - Gea; REINEMANN, DOUG - University Of Wisconsin; ROGERS, RONALD - Prairie Estates Genetics; SAHA, AMIT - Fogs Global Network; SANKARAIAH, CHAKRA - Land O'Lakes, Inc; SHAHINFAR, SALEH - Agriculture Victoria; SIBERSKI, CORI - Iowa State University; WADE, KEVIN - McGill University - Canada; WORDEN, LINDSEY - Holstein Association Usa, Inc; ZHANG, FAN - University Of Wisconsin; WANGEN, STEVEN - University Of Wisconsin; DA SILVA, TADEU - University Of Wisconsin; CABRERA, VICTOR - University Of Wisconsin

Submitted to: Animals
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/29/2021
Publication Date: 7/7/2021
Citation: Baldin, M., Breunig, M., Breunig, T., Cue, R., De Vries, A., Doornink, M., Drevenak, J., Fourdraine, R., George, R., Goodling, R., Greenfield, R., Jorgensen, M.W., Lenkaitis, A., Reinemann, D., Rogers, R., Saha, A., Sankaraiah, C., Shahinfar, S., Siberski, C., Wade, K., Worden, L., Zhang, F., Wangen, S., Da Silva, T., Cabrera, V. 2021. Integrated decision support systems (IDSS) for dairy farming: A discussion on how to improve their sustained adoption. Animals. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11072025.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11072025

Interpretive Summary: This paper discusses mechanisms to promote sustained adoption of integrated decision support systems (IDSS) in dairy farming. Integrated DSS are those that receive continuous data streams from farm data collection systems (and others) and integrate them to produce insightful outcomes. Multiple limiting factors are preventing the use and adoption of existing IDSS and could also prevent the adoption of upcoming IDSS. In summary, these factors include value proposition, practical application, easiness of use, and data governance issues related to the IDSS. Therefore, awareness and further industry-wide discussion of these components could help in the development and sustained adoption of IDSS in order to facilitate the complex process of data-driven decision making. As a commentary paper, emphasis is given to authorship’s deep reflection based on experience, expertise, and practical knowledge.

Technical Abstract: Dairy farm decision support systems or tools (DSS) assist dairy farmers to solve complex problems by improving the decision-making processes. In this paper, we are especially interested in newer generation, integrated DSS (IDSS), which additionally and concurrently: 1) receive continuous data feed from farm data collection systems (and others) and 2) integrate more than one data stream to produce more insightful outcomes with minimal human supervision. To our knowledge, the scientific community and the allied industry have not been effective or successful in developing, disseminating, and promoting a sustained adoption of IDSS for dairy farms. Thus, this commentary paper discusses barriers of either lack of adoption or discontinued adoption and the factors that would promote the sustained adoption of IDSS. The main adoption barriers discussed include perceived issues related to the lack of good value proposition, practical application, and ease of use; and IDSS challenges related to data collection, data standards, data integration, and data shareability. Success in the sustainable adoption of IDSS depends on solving these problems and also addressing intrinsic issues related to the development, maintenance, and functioning of IDSS. There is a need for coordinated action by all the main stakeholders in the dairy sector to realize all the benefits of IDSS, including all important players in the dairy industry production and distribution chain. Integrated DSS can also become an important component for decision making by policy makers.