Digital application options in small-scale agricultural structures of horse husbandry and pasture-based dairy cattle farming

The objectives of the DiWenkLa project (Digital value chains for sustainable small-scale agriculture) are the analysis, development and knowledge, and practice transfer of the use of digital technologies in small-scale regions. In this paper, the application potentials for decision support and farm management are investigated for animal husbandry based on two typical regional examples (automation in horse husbandry and individual animal sensor technology in pasture-based dairy cattle husbandry). It is being demonstrated for horse husbandry that automated feeding of roughage and concentrate feed can reduce signs of stress in horses and significantly reduce feeding labor time. In pasture-based dairy cattle management, sensor technologies enable animal-specific representation of activity data (eating, ruminating, walking) in a temporal-spatial context. The individual animal-related data are an important key area in a holistic approach of feeding, grazing and herd management.