Renewal of TVD: Rethinking animal transportation
The current animal traffic database (TVD) dates back to 2011 and, despite ongoing improvements, its system architecture is no longer state of the art. Identitas AG will therefore be gradually renewing the TVD by 2030, thereby also optimizing usability and mobile capability.
The TVD forms the basis for the traceability of the livestock registered in it. Among other things, this is an important contribution to food safety and the containment of animal diseases. Identitas AG operates the TVD on behalf of the Federal Office for Agriculture and issues unique ear tags for the identification of cloven-hoofed animals.
Time of renewal
The technological basis is getting on in years. At the same time, availability and customer satisfaction with TVD remain very good. Its operation can still be guaranteed. However, new concepts and technologies promise further improvements and increases in efficiency, but ongoing operations must not be disrupted.
In close consultation with TVD users, their needs were assessed and the strategic objectives redefined:
Successful start
To ensure that TVD can continue to be relied on, the focus over the past three years has been on renewing the technical foundation. An initial “Accounting” implementation project has been proving its worth in the desired microservice architecture since 2024. In addition to high availability, the renewed TVD should offer users added value, reduce support costs and offer increased maintenance flexibility.
The other TVD modules will now be gradually replaced over the next few years.
Identitas AG strives for intuitive, modern user guidance with the aim of further improving the needs of mobile solutions in particular. Stakeholders are involved on an ongoing basis so that feedback can be taken into account in further development steps.
Stay tuned! We look forward to keeping you regularly informed about the status of the TVD renewal on this channel.
Would you like to help shape the digital transformation of the Swiss agriculture and food industry and take part in future workshops to implement the measures of the #DigiAgriFoodCH transformation program?
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Agroscope: Intelligent technologies for sustainable agriculture
In modern agriculture, the use of advanced technologies is playing an increasingly important role in meeting the challenges of climate change, resource conservation and crop protection. In this article, we present two innovative approaches being developed by Agroscope: intelligent camera systems to repel crows and dendrometers to optimize the water supply to trees. Both technologies aim to increase efficiency while offering environmentally friendly solutions.
Intelligent camera systems against crows
The first of the two locations that were tested.
The second of the two locations that were tested.
The visual interface for the user, which can be accessed online. The blue lines correspond to the number of birds detected (y-axis) and the dotted vertical lines show the device’s rejection of birds over time (x-axis).
Crows are a major problem for many farmers, as they quickly become accustomed to common defense measures. Agroscope is therefore working on an intelligent camera system that detects crows in real time and emits targeted acoustic signals to drive them away. This method reduces unnecessary stimuli and increases the effectiveness of the defense. Next year, tests will continue in western Switzerland and at the Smart Technologies test station in the cantons of Thurgau and Schaffhausen.
Dendrometer for demand-based irrigation
At the same time, Agroscope is researching a new type of irrigation system that uses dendrometers to monitor the water dynamics of trees. These sensors record the fluctuations in trunk diameter and enable precise and resource-saving irrigation. Initial results show that up to 30% water can be saved in apple trees without affecting yields. Further research results are expected at the end of the year.
Would you like to help shape the digital transformation of the Swiss agriculture and food industry and take part in future workshops to implement the measures of the #DigiAgriFoodCH transformation program?
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Harvest forecasting with artificial intelligence in fruit growing
Every year, the Swiss Fruit Association prepares a harvest estimate for dessert pome fruit. The "Bavendorf method" has been used for this since 1986. In 2018, the Swiss Fruit Association and Swisscofel began developing the PreApPear smartphone app in collaboration with Prognosix AG from Zurich. Today, this app makes it possible to estimate the harvest of dessert pome fruit using artificial intelligence (AI).
The AI draws on various data sources, including over 100 regional weather stations that provide data on temperature, precipitation and hours of sunshine. This is supplemented by information on fruit development and phenological stages over the last ten years. Based on this data, the AI analyzes current photos of the fruit stocks, automatically counts the fruit and creates a national harvest estimate. For this to be reliable, the AI requires images of at least 50 plots per variety and region. This year, over 20,000 photos of apple and pear trees were collected and used for data analysis and subsequent harvest estimates.
The AI learns continuously and becomes more precise the more photos and data it has at its disposal. In the future, producers will be able to use the app for farm-specific harvest estimates. For this to work reliably, the app must be used over several years so that the AI can incorporate the special features of the individual plots into the calculations.
Would you like to find out more or use the PreApPear app yourself next season? You can find all the important information here:
Would you like to help shape the digital transformation of the Swiss agriculture and food industry and take part in future workshops to implement the measures of the #DigiAgriFoodCH transformation program?
Would you also like to share a blog post on a topic related to digitalization in the Swiss agri-food sector?
Then we look forward to hearing from you at info@digiagrifood.ch.
Review of the annual conference of the Charter Community Digitalization 2024
On 4 June 2024, this year’s annual conference of the Swiss Agriculture and Food Industry Digitalization Charter Association took place at HAFL under the motto “Data-based agriculture and food industry” with around 70 participants. Agriculture is developing rapidly.
More and more digital technologies are being introduced and generating data.
This data can be a valuable management aid on any farm, both from a business economics and a business ecology perspective.
For this reason, the 2024 annual conference of the Charter Association for Digitalization was held under the motto “Data-based agriculture and food industry”.
The many exciting presentations gave participants an overview of current efforts, systems currently in use and an outlook for the future.
In addition, the speakers provided insights into specific projects and experiences from agricultural practice.
The presentations of the annual conference can be found here:
- Application examples and current trends in the field of AI / M.Volpi
- Opportunities and risks of AI / D.Küonen
- Possibilities of management support in crop production / S.Odermatt
- Virtual fences for the pasture / M.Probo
- Networked production systems, autonomy and information management – key elements of future agricultural machinery / P.Pickel
- Predicting the TS yield of pastures with UAV images and digital terrain model / P. Aebischer
- Digital weather and climate data to support decision-making and business management / K.G.Gutbrod
- VitiProtect – AI-based prediction of grapevine downy mildew / S. Schneider
- Use of artificial intelligence in the insurance industry / G.Barloggio
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Added value from data
Added value from data
Data is playing an increasingly important role in modern agriculture. It helps farmers to work more efficiently, sustainably and profitably. But how exactly can added value be created from data? Here you can find out how you can optimize your agricultural processes by understanding and using data.
The importance of data in agriculture
Data provides information on soil conditions, weather conditions, yields, plant diseases, animal health, etc. By collecting and analyzing this data, farmers can make more targeted decisions. For example, accurate information on soil moisture can help optimize irrigation, saving water and promoting plant health. Weather data makes it possible to determine the best times for sowing and harvesting, while yield data shows which cultivation methods are most successful. With the help of sensor data, diseases in animals can be detected earlier, which in turn reduces veterinary costs or increases the fertility of the herd through adapted management.
First steps in data usage
The first step is to collect relevant data. Modern technologies such as sensors, drones or weather stations offer a wide range of possibilities for this. The collected data must be organized and stored securely. Once the data has been collected, the next important step is to analyze it. Specialized software tools help to convert the data into comprehensible graphs and diagrams that make patterns and trends visible. These findings can be directly implemented in agricultural practice.
Practical application of the data
By analyzing the soil moisture, irrigation systems can be adjusted so that the water is used efficiently. This saves costs and protects the environment. The data also enables more precise fertilization, which increases yields and reduces the use of fertilizers. In addition, diseases and pest infestations can be detected and combated at an early stage by continuously monitoring growth data and weather conditions.
Data and artificial intelligence
The increasing availability of data and advances in artificial intelligence are opening up new opportunities for agriculture. AI can create predictive models that forecast yields, weather conditions and market trends. Automated machines and robots can take over routine tasks, further increasing efficiency.
Conclusion
The ability to understand and use data is becoming increasingly important for farmers. Collecting, organizing and analyzing data enables informed decisions that increase productivity and profitability. Investing in data literacy and related technologies pays off in the long run and paves the way for more sustainable and successful farming.
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Smartfarm, the new field calendar from IP-SUISSE and Agrosolution
IP-SUISSE has been offering an electronic field calendar as an app since 2016. For various reasons, the Executive Board decided to reprogram the field calendar from scratch in 2023. Even the name is new, namely smartfarm. Smartfarm is much more comprehensive than a field calendar. For example, the grazing and grazing journal will be available in spring 2025.
Smartfarm can obtain data from the cantonal systems and will also be able to forward selected data at the request of the producer. Data hosting will take place in Switzerland. There are currently two types of license. The IP-SUISSE license is exclusively for IP-SUISSE members. You benefit from a very attractively priced offer. Support is provided by IP-SUISSE employees. Non-members can purchase the Agrosolution license. Smartfarm will go online in August 2024. The agricultural trade press will report accordingly. The homepage www.smartfarm.ch is already online. You can find detailed information there.
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News at barto
The barto platform, which enables players in Swiss agriculture to develop and offer their own modules, exceeded 5,000 subscribers at the start of 2024, making it the undisputed number one among Swiss farm management and information systems (FMIS). But the digital farm manager is also continuing to grow in terms of its offering: two new modules and the expansion of a third will be released over the course of summer 2024.
- Control dossier (developed by barto in collaboration with AGRIDEA)
With the control dossier, all control-relevant documents from the various barto modules are automatically merged into one dossier. In addition, a list of the required documents is created based on the programs and labels selected and stored by the plant management.
- Fertiplan (developed by AGRIDEA and Landor)
With Fertiplan, farmers can easily and independently create field-specific fertilization plans for their meadow and arable crops to ensure site-specific fertilization.
- MyDocs app (developed by fenaco and LAVEBA)
The existing MyDocs fenaco-LANDI and MyDocs LAVEBA-LANDI modules were already upgraded in June with a completely revised user interface. Now, the associated app has been added, giving users access to their company documents at any time via smartphone.
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Foundation stone laid for the digiagrifood.ch communication platform
Various players in the Swiss agricultural and food sector have laid the foundations for the communication platform digiagrifood.ch laid
A workshop with various stakeholders from the Swiss agricultural and food sector was held in March 2024 to develop the digiagrifood.ch communication platform. The aim was to determine the needs of the future digiagrifood.ch website from the perspective of external stakeholders. This resulted, for example, in the desire to implement “blogs”, the comment function under the blogs and the desire to see the number of “likes”, “reads” etc. directly on the blogs – “We want to see which topics interest the other readers the most”. The wish was also expressed to have a list of services on the website so that stakeholders can share knowledge with each other.
The Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) would like to take this opportunity to once again express its sincere thanks for the commitment of these stakeholders, who have made a valuable contribution to the realization of the first version of the digiagrifood.ch website.
As part of the implementation of the #DigiAgriFoodCH transformation program, regular workshops on the individual measures of the #DigiAgriFoodCH transformation program will be held over the next few years so that the needs of external stakeholders can be directly incorporated into the implementation of the measures and user-oriented solutions can be created.
Would you like to help shape the digital transformation of the Swiss agriculture and food industry and take part in future workshops to implement the measures of the #DigiAgriFoodCH transformation program?
Would you also like to share a blog post on a topic related to digitalization in the Swiss agri-food sector? Then we look forward to hearing from you at info@digiagrifood.ch.
eCH expert group on agricultural data: initial results
The first results of the eCH expert group on agricultural data
At the end of 2021, the Agricultural Data Expert Group was founded on the initiative of the Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG). It is made up of various stakeholders from the agricultural and food sector. After around two years of work, the first four data standards were published on April 15, 2024.
- eCH-0261 Operational and company data
- eCH-0262 Farm data and use of operating resources
- eCH-0263 Operating resources
- eCH-0265 Areas and crops
These four data standards are harmonized with eCH-0108 Company Master Data and Company Register Version 6.0 of 4 April 2024. Further data standards are being developed and are very likely to follow.
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