Catalogue of Infrastructures and Facilities

This facility is meant to house ewes for lambing. The building has a central area meant for feeding the animals, and on each side there are modular pens. Animals are housed on accumulated straw litter.

Facility

Crevette

This facility is meant for finishing lambs housing. The building has a central area meant for feeding the animals, and on each side there are modular pens. Animals are housed on accumulated straw litter.

Facility

Holding Pen

This facility is a 650 m² holding pen that is used for several interventions on the animals, such as shearing, weighing, and health interventions. Animals enter from one side and are parked in a waiting area. Then they can be sorted and directed in different ways to the devices needed for the planned intervention.

Facility

Pasture

Mainly grouped around the building, this facility is composed of 42% of permanent meadow and 58% of temporary meadow. Most of it is grazed by the animals, and a progressive automation of the water troughs is ongoing.

Infrastructure

Le Mourier

Located 25 km south of Limoges (Haute-Vienne, France), the site covers 95 ha, all grassland, half of which is permanent meadow. 700 ewes are raised on the farm; half of them are of the Mouton Vendéen breed, and the other half are of the F1 type (Ile de France crossed with the Romanov breed). The farm is equipped with a 2500 m² sheepfold and a 650 m² holding pen combined with a shearing room. France's first ovine Digiferme® (since 2017), Le Mourier is developing precision breeding to help sheep farmers improve their working conditions and income, as well as flock performance. Thus, the coordinated use of automation to relieve breeders of physical tasks, sensors to measure parameters on the animals, and satellite images to analyse grass stocks are digital innovations implemented and tested on the DIGIFERME® of Le Mourier. Here are just a few examples of the technologies tested: - Ultra-high-frequency loops for reading animal movements in the herd. - Connected self-weighing scales for live monitoring of animal performance and health. - 3D imaging prototypes to assess the body condition of ewes and lambs. - Virtual fences to geolocate and guide animals in grazing areas. The Mourier experimental farm is also the headquarters of CIIRPO (Interregional Centre for Information and Research on Ovine Production). A true network for research and demonstration in the sheep breeding sector, it brings together 70 member structures, including experimental sites, agricultural high school farms, producers' organisations, chambers of agriculture, sheep unions, health protection groups, etc.

Facility

Barn building

This facility is composed of 2 pens: one 1000 m² housing for milking cows with 85 places at the trough and one 800 m² housing for heifers with 70 places at the trough. The cows are housed in a stall with cubicles on straw and an automatic scraper.

Facility

Cereal plots

15-hectare plot for cereal growing. Sowing around November and harvesting in July.

Facility

Corn plots

32-hectare plot for silage corn growing. Sowing begins in early May, and harvesting begins in early September.

Facility

Grassland plots

55-hectare plot of grassland with a 7-year rotation: 5 years of grassland, 2 years of crops. This plot can be harvested or grazed by the cows. Various trials are performed on the plot: multi-species meadows test, maintenance tests (overseeding, aeration, amendment), growth measurement with an herbometer, phosphorus runoff and nitrate loss tests, ...

Facility

Milking research laboratory

This facility is composed of an experimental milking machine, a modular milking parlour, and a milking robot.

Infrastructure

Derval

Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (PSNC)

At Derval, the herd comprises 85 Prim'Holsteins and 75 heifers, with an annual production of 700,000 litres of milk. Derval is a member of the Innovation Research and Development team of the Pays de la Loire Chamber of Agriculture, working with Idele (French Livestock Institute) and the F@rmXP network. As a Digiferme®, new technologies are a key area of interest for the Derval farm. Their use should help to improve the farmer's day-to-day life and guarantee optimised management of the dairy farm. Some examples tested on the farm: - Milk quality and energy consumption: Testing of a "new generation" low-energy consumption and connected milk cooling tank, as part of a project to enhance the value of the farm's energy data. - Monitoring the operating costs of technologies used on the farm: Detecting malfunctions in milking robots and optimising them by monitoring connected water and electricity meters. - Pasture monitoring and management: Drones and virtual fencing are examples of technologies evaluated. - Milk analysis laboratory associated with a milking robot. - Animal behaviour analysis: collars with integrated accelerometers, cameras for viewing the entire dairy cow barn, and developing computer vision algorithms. - Testing of robots on field crops.

Facility

GNSS Laboratory