Activities are divided into two major themes:

• Establishment of automated solution for collecting bovine health data and assessing its effectiveness
• Mapping of the usage of multilateral data exchange and combining data

Dairy farming is a strategic area in Estonia, made possible by excellent climatic conditions and many other prerequisites. Increasingly intensified production conditions have caused reduced longevity and reproduction of cows, which indicates the need for systemic approach to issues of animal health and nutrition. Special attention should be paid to the health of young stock. Growing labour shortage creates tensions in animal farming. Extensive deployment and development of digital tools represents one possible way for finding solutions. In order to implement the potential, it is necessary to create an automated solution for collection and sharing of health data for dairy farmers and use the combination of these and other data in supply chain.

The most important objective of the action plan consists in finding new solutions to problems arising from increasing labour shortage. Digital solutions in dairy production are expected to allow Estonian dairy products to stand out and distinguish from the products of our competitors in the future. That will hopefully increase the number of more expensive dairy products sold by industries. After all, one of the priorities of the Dairy Cluster is to facilitate the export capacity of the sector.

Implementation of collecting health data is an important step towards the development of precision farming technologies. Based on health data of the animals, we can draw conclusions regarding both an individual animal, herd and entire dairy sector (big data). Resulting big data system has a huge future potential, because transferring and automated processing of health data of individual animals essentially allows creating electronic health passport of a bovine animal. Second phase applications include automated herd-specific and population-specific information management and interactions with private sector organisations and public agencies (e-PRIA; Veterinary Supervision, Animal Recording Centre, etc). Resulting savings and new business opportunities derived from compilation and exchange of data can definitely be measured in millions of euros, not to mention providing a solution in a situation, where some things cannot be done due to labour shortage.

The activities of Estonian Dairy Cluster are supported under measures 16.0, 16.1 and 16.2 of the Estonian Rural Development Plan 2014–2020.

In addition to new dairy barn, the construction project included completion of a shed for 250 calves, extension to calving shed, new feed storage and silo and two liquid manure storages with the capacity of 12,000 m³. Total investment reached 3.5 million euros. Kaiu LT OÜ together with Väätsa Agro and Kärla PÜ are members of the group managed by AS Trigon Dairy Farming Estonia.

Veterinary Kerli Mõtus, PhD, talked about herd health audit programme and its economic impact and economist Ants-Hannes Viira, PhD, gave an overview of the impact of dry matter content on different players in the value chain and analysis of pricing mechanism. Both presenters represent the Estonian University of Life Sciences, a partner of Dairy Cluster.

Slides of the presentations will open when clicking on the title. All the other presentations made at the Dairy Forum are available here.

The workshop shared the experience of the EIP working groups, discussed the promotion of impact, mapping the challenges ahead and sharing the positive experiences of previous EIP working groups with the start-up EIP groups. As a second task, ideas were gathered at the workshop on the post-2020 EIP-AGRI work program. Among other things, answers were sought to questions on how to facilitate the implementation of EIP-AGRI, as well as ways of reducing the reporting and dissemination of results by EIP working groups.

Estonia was represented by Mr. Hardi Tamm, Chairman of Dairy Cluster, Mr. Konstantin Mihhejev, representative of the Rural Networking Department of the Agricultural Research Center, and Ms. Helena Pärenson, Specialist of the Department of Research and Development of the Ministry of Rural Affairs.

Original materials can be found here: https://ec.europa.eu/eip/agriculture/event/eip-agri-seminar-operational-group-to-impact

According to Siim Riisenberg, member of the management of Kehtna Mõisa OÜ, new building helps to make better use of the technological capacity of entire farm complex, maintain low cost price of milk and enhance competitiveness. Construction of new liquid manure storages were necessary for environmental purposes. Total cost of new buildings was 1.6 million euros.

Photo gallery about the opening ceremony is available here:

In 2017, Dairy Cluster commissioned the development of technical platform for biosensor system that allows determining three common pathogens causing mastitis in the milk with 20 minutes. The second phase of the development work in MAVAS project aims at preparation of device that can be used in farms.

MAVAS project involves comparison of the results gained from using biosensor with accredited laboratory methodologies, optimisation of measuring methods in various farms, preparation of biosensor prototype and test equipment for performing analyses in farms, and determination of quantitative content of pathogens in mastitis-affected milk. The selection of microbes causing clinical and hidden mastitis is defined on a farm-by-farm basis while considering the pathogen distribution patterns, determined by prototype sensor devices placed in farms in the framework of the project. Such sensors also allow optimisation of the structure of test equipment and give feedback concerning its ease of use under actual operating conditions.

In the course of the project, it is intended to widen the selection of pathogens identified by the biosensor.

MAVAS project is implemented by Dairy Cluster, companies Kaiu LT OÜ and Kuivajõe Farmer OÜ and scientific partners TorroSen OÜ and Estonian University of Life Sciences. Works are scheduled from September 2018 to August 2022. Project constitutes a part of Dairy Cluster coordinated cross-border cooperation with Finnish ÄLYREHU working group. This is the first instance of cross-border cooperation between working groups of European Innovation Partnership.

The activities of Estonian Dairy Cluster are supported under measures 16.1 and 16.2 of the Estonian Rural Development Plan 2014–2020.

Warehouse has better storage conditions for the machine fleet of the company, as well as seeds and fertilisers. Estimated total investment was 1.3 million euros.

Despite application rounds held in different countries, both parties were able to participate in preparing the action plan of the other, set initial work sections in the agreement and expected lists and timetable of joint activities.

Cooperation creates synergy both through exchange of development information and combination of particular tests created by different groups. While the Estonian partner focuses on the development of test equipment for early detection of mastitis by using sensors (MAVAS project), the Finnish partner is developing ketoacidosis biomarker for diagnostics of subclinical ketosis. The tests for applicability of biosensors developed by both groups take place in Estonia and in Finland and in at least two partner farms of EIP working groups.

In addition to that preparations are made for joint activities with Finnish consultant network ProAgria for introducing the results in the future.

EIP working group led by the Dairy Cluster consists in the members of the Dairy Cluster and partners TorroSen OÜ, Animal Breeders Association of Estonia, Estonian University of Life Sciences and the Competence Centre on Health Technologies.

The members of ÄLYREHU EIP working group include: University of Oulu; ProAgria (Finnish network of rural consultants), Finnish companies MTech Digital Solutions, SEMES (manufacturer of silo test equipment), eight dairy farms and one veterinary company.

The activities of Estonian Dairy Cluster are supported under measures 16.1 of the Estonian Rural Development Plan 2014–2020.