How RAP in the German market contributes to For the Future of Farming

8 January 2025

Digitalisation in our business still offers many opportunities. Isabell Meyer, AMS product manager in Germany, explains how the Robot Analysis Programme (RAP) in Germany is responding well to this and what steps we have taken in this in recent years.

“In Germany, we see a shift from traditional livestock farming to one that increasingly works with automated, data-driven systems. This is why we started the Robot Analysis Programme (RAP) back in 2014. This gave us a head start in the market!”

Isabell Meyer, productmanager AMS Germany: “We can respond to dairy farmers' queries quickly and flexibly through RAP, whether on-site or via remote monitoring.”

What exactly does RAP do?

“Robots produce huge amounts of data, including through various sensors. With RAP, this data is standardised and analysed so that we can work with it effectively”, Isabell explains. “The aim of RAP is to reduce the data to the key metrics we need to optimise robot settings and to better match the ration to the animals' needs and the farmer's goals. This not only benefits animal health, but also productivity and efficiency in dairy farming. In addition, it allows our advisers to monitor live from a distance. So all this is very valuable for both the dairy farmer and the advisor.”

How does RAP contribute to For the Future of Farming?

Isabell: “RAP enables our advisers to translate huge amounts of data into practical advice for the farmer. This helps them to optimise processes on farm. By continuously monitoring and optimising progress, RAP contributes to the transformation of traditional livestock farming into a data-driven, future-oriented sector. So yes, it definitely contributes to For the Future of Farming.”

How do customers benefit from RAP?

“We can respond to dairy farmers' queries quickly and flexibly through RAP, whether on-site or via remote monitoring. We process the farmer's farm data and translate it into useful information. By analysing this data combined with what we see at farm during visits, we can quickly identify areas for improvement and provide targeted advice that matches the animals‘ needs and farmers’ goals.”

What's next when it comes to RAP?

Afbeelding: AMS_beeldscherm_data_800-800

Isabell is very clear about that: “It is important to continuously improve the functionality of RAP and further optimise the use of data, so that we can meet the ever-changing demands of our advisers and the specific needs of customers. In the future, we would like to integrate and link more data sources. This will allow us to further maximise information and further automate the calculation and output of relevant key figures. In addition, it is important to present data in a more user-friendly way and generate automated analyses and recommendations. This will not only improve the efficiency of feeding advice, but also increase user-friendliness.”

When training our advisers, we will continue to focus on analysing data in RAP, focusing on the specific situation of each farm, the recorded cow signals, the calculated ration and the settings of the milking robot. Isabell is convinced that only by linking the different components can informed recommendations be made and processes be controlled and optimised.

Why do you work for For the Future of Farming (FTFOF)?

“I really believe in our mission ‘For the Future of Farming’. That is an important reason why I work at ForFarmers. ForFarmers has a clear, forward-looking approach that not only addresses current challenges in the sector, but also develops innovative solutions for the future. Being close to customers and providing personal advice are crucial to FTFOF's success, both now and in the future. FTFOF enables innovative technologies and data solutions to make the sector sustainable and help farmers future-proof their businesses, with an important role for efficiency, innovation and the dairy farmer's earnings model in this.”