Individual feed intake monitoring system for cross-disciplinary dairy production research
PI: Ryan Pralle
Pralle is an assistant professor of animal and dairy science in the UW–Platteville School of Agriculture. His research interests span dairy cow nutrition and predictive analytics. Specifically, his research strives to develop data-driven management tools and strategies to optimize the nutrient supply to and the metabolic health of individual cows. Pralle’s position is funded by the Dairy Innovation Hub.
Pralle’s project will install a RIC2Discover feed intake system, which is a fully automated technology that monitors individual cow feed intake and feeding behavior, at Pioneer Farm at UW–Platteville. The RIC2Discover feeding system will allow individualized feeding regimes and will also be used in conjunction with the Lely A5 robotic milking unit to address the growing demand for knowledge about optimizing management of robotic milking systems.