OPTIMIR

Context

The dairy industry represents 13% of the turnover of the European food industry. North West Europe produces 60% of the European milk and 150,000 people are employed in the dairy sector of this area. The low selling price of milk prevents many farmers to sustain their business.

Cooperation and pooling the resources of Milk Recording Organizations an Animal Science Research Units could deliver more global, powerful and transposable knowledge and skills that could raise everyone to the highest level.

http://www.optimir.eu

Objectives

The project aims to develop innovative farm management web applications that will use the spectral analysis of the Milk Recording samples to enable a sustainable and profitable management of the milk production. The Mid Infra Red (MIR) spectrum will be used as a mirror of the cows' state giving indicators on their: Fertility, Feeding, Health, Rejection of pollutants, Milk quality. Globally, Optimir aims to cooperate between Milk Recording Organizations an Animal Science Research Units to pool the resources, and deliver more global, powerful and transposable knowledge and skills.

Expected results

1. To have a common transnational database combining phenotypic data of the cows and the Mid Infra Red spectra coming from the analysis of milk samples collected through the Milk Recording organizations.

2. To identify relevant associations between the phenotypic data and the Mid Infra Red spectrum of the milk, by pooling the resources of Research Centres and Universities.

3. By developing innovative models and equations for building web applications to provide dairy farmers and their consultants with new information and decision making tools like:Pregnancy diagnosis, Imbalanced fodder detector, Mastitis predictor, Methane rejection gauge

Results obtained

Contribution

Owing to its experience on Infra Red spectra standardization, the CRA-W is responsible of the standardization step of all spectra, in order to construct the pooled transnational database. Moreother, the CRA-W will lead the coordination in different research steps, to insure the cooperation between all scientific partners.

Partners

• Association Wallonne de l'Elevage asbl (AWE asbl), BE, Carlo Bertozzi, www.awenet.be • Chambre régionale Agriculture Alsace, FR, Philippe Caussanel, www.bas-rhin.chambagri.fr • Association départementale de Contrôle Laitier du Pas de Calais (ADECL62), FR, Christian Lhomme • CLASEL (Sarthe et Mayenne), FR, Jean-Bernard Davier, www.clasel.fr • Organisme de Contrôle Laitier du Doubs et du Territoire de Belfort (OCL25), FR, Daniel Pourchet • France Conseil Elevage (FCEL), FR, Christophe Lecomte, www.france-conseil-elevage.fr • Institut de l'Elevage, FR, Philippe Brunschwig, www.france-conseil-elevage.fr • Gembloux Agro BioTech, Université de Liège (GxABT-ULg), BE, Nicolas Gengler, www.gxabt.be • Landesverband Baden-Württemberg für Leistungsprüfungen in der Tierzucht e. v. (LKV-BW), DE, Fritz Golle leidreiter, www.lkvbw.de • Institut für Tierernährung, Universität Hohenheim, DE, Herbert Steinga, www.uni-hohenheim.de • Landeskontrollverband Nordrhein-Westfalen e. V. (LKV-NRW), DE, Rudolf Schmidt, www.lkv-nrw.de • Centre wallon de Recherches agronomique, département Valorisation des Productions agricoles (CRA-W), BE, Frédéric Dehareng, www.cra.wallonie.be • Comité du Lait asbl, BE, Emile Piraux, www.comitedulait.be • Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF), IE, Brian Wickham, www.icbf.com • Teagasc, Agriculture and Food Development Authority, IE, Donagh Berry, www.teagasc.ie • Scottish Agricultural College (SAC), UK, Mike Coffey, www.sac.ac.uk • National Milk Recording (NMR), UK, Andy Warne, www.nmr.co.uk • CONVIS Herdbuch Service Elevage et Génétique, LU, Armand Braun, www.herdbooks.lu