Energy Consumption on Dairy Farms: A Review of Monitoring, Prediction Modelling, and Analyses

Abstract

The global consumption of dairy produce is forecasted to increase by 19% per person by 2050. However, milk production is an intense energy consuming process. Coupled with concerns related to global greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, increasing the production of milk must be met with the sustainable use of energy resources, to ensure the future monetary and environmental sustainability of the dairy industry. This body of work focused on summarizing and reviewing dairy energy research from the monitoring, prediction modelling and analyses point of view. Total primary energy consumption values in literature ranged from 2.7 MJ kg−1 Energy Corrected Milk on organic dairy farming systems to 4.2 MJ kg−1 Energy Corrected Milk on conventional dairy farming systems. Variances in total primary energy requirements were further assessed according to whether confinement or pasture-based systems were employed. Overall, a 35% energy reduction was seen across literature due to employing a pasture-based dairy system. Compared to standard regression methods, increased prediction accuracy has been demonstrated in energy literature due to employing various machine-learning algorithms. Dairy energy prediction models have been frequently utilized throughout literature to conduct dairy energy analyses, for estimating the impact of changes to infrastructural equipment and managerial practices.

A Global Review of Monitoring, Modeling, and Analyses of Water Demand in Dairy Farming

“…Precooling milk via water through a plate cooler may reduce milk-cooling energy requirements by up to 50% [56,57]. However, careful consideration must be given to the financial and environmental impact of this utilization of water, as discussed by Murphy et al [58].…”

Sizing of a Standalone PV System with Battery Storage for a Dairy: A Case Study from Chile

“…In the particular case of this industry, a growth of 22% in milk production is expected for the 2018-2027 period [16], and 19% in its consumption by 2050 ( [17], cited in [7]). From the energy consumption perspective, it is added the fact that electrical energy represents one of the items with the highest consumption for both conventional and organic dairy farms, representing 14% and 24% of total primary energy consumption, respectively, according to [18]. Considering the above, the incentives for photovoltaic system installation, particularly in the dairy industry, are considerable.…”

“…us, the battery state of charge SOC is calculated from equation (18), considering the remaining energy, where SOC a is the SOC at the moment immediately before the current period, that is, the previous hour, considering a simulation on an hourly basis. Any excess energy generated by the system is dissipated and is represented by E loss , given by equation (19).…”

Impacts of Divergent Moving Drives on Energy Efficiency and Performance of Various AMS in Operative Conditions

“…Energy consumption is one of the most important production factors in German dairy farming. Besides environmental impacts, the aspects of energy consumption in dairy farming are economic impacts due to increasing energy costs [1]. In recent decades the increase in energy costs in agriculture is mainly due to rising energy prices, but also due to increased mechanisation and automatisation on the farms [2].…”

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