Controlling dairy farm tasks and animal data using one program
The Multiline Master-PC program enables centralised management of livestock calendars, authority reports, livestock information needed for milking and feeding automation control, barn task calendars and task lists, breeding information, and milk production reports. The program has interfaces to national animal registration centers in EU, to production control programs of all best known milking machine manufacturers and to feeding automation controlled by Pellon Graphics. The data transfer is in real time, which means that the information management is faster and the work load decreases. By following up the production input and having the possibility to feed product prices into the system, production effectiveness can be monitored on a day-to-day basis. All dairy farm reports can be seen on an animal, animal group and production unit level by event, day, week, month, year or other time period.

Implementing the automation of a new barn is simple
The Multiline program requires only a one-time data input of EU authorities, milking robots, milking stations and the animal data needed for feeding automation and animal movement guidance. When implementing a new barn, cattle information is easily retrieved from the national animal registry by using the link connection in Multiline. Via the connection license of the national animal registry, Multiline distributes up-to-date animal data to the other computers in the barn. Traditional, manual data input is not needed, which eliminates typing errors and speeds up the implementation of the new equipment. All the process computers in the barn thus have uniform animal data that is centrally updated also for authority reporting through the Multiline master program. Henceforth there is just one input of events and animal information and that is all.

Versatile animal recognition
In a Multiline barn, the cows may have three simultaneous identification methods: an electronic ear tag, a collar and an activity meter on the ankle. The system operates well with the best known identification equipment from different manufacturers in the EU. Using Multiline, several well-known milking equipment manufacturers and their automation systems can be united into one functional entity. Utilising identification, feeding of milking groups and their administration becomes easier.

Overall control of feeding
The cattle yield is based on accurate feeding control. Multiline distributes and gathers feeding control information about feed stations and mixed feed that can be used at an animal and group level. Animals identified in the program are divided up and guided into feeding groups, after which the Pellon Graphics feeding automation system distributes optimized TMR-feed and grass feed to the correct animals and groups based on weight and the added information from animal identification from feeding robots. Feeding is programmed according to the production phase, yield and weight using feeding optimisation guidelines for each cow and different feeds. The Multiline production planning is based on the accurate data about individual cow positions, group feeding quantities and the distributed feed data produced by the Pellon Graphics feeding system. The optimal group divisions are based on barn layout. A functional animal traffic plan of a free stall barn and furnishing plans enable a multitude of possibilities to achieve excellent yields.

Utilising milking data
The data on individual cows and milking events collected by milking systems is automatically stored in the Multiline system. According to the practise in different countries, the official milking event measurements (volume, fat percentage, protein percentage, urea levels) can be automatically stored in the database. The livestock production reports can be compared with the SPP indexes in app. 6,000 farms in Europe, enabling the comparison of the producer's results with values from others.

Analysis of health data
Activity measurement produces supporting data for heat monitoring and daily Multiline task lists. Daily in-heat, breeding, gestation check-ups, calvings, treatments, medication information and animal transfers are stored in Multiline, from where the data can be directly transferred to the national animal registers. The data can be used to create summaries and graphical charts to help in decision-making.

Animal control
Using collars and ear tags, cows are guided to their own locations and groups and to the correct places in feeding stations and mixed feed groups.

Financial analysis
The system may store contribution and yield unit data e.g. milk price, feed price, calf price, the price of an animal to be slaughtered and medical expenses. These will enable calculation of profit margins per animal and herd.

Breeding plans
Data on breeding plans is stored in Multiline and the bulls used for semination are entered into task lists. Pedigree history is stored to form a basis for new breeding plans.

Daily barn task lists
Animal transfers, heat monitoring, breeding and inseminations, health check-ups and calvings can be used to create daily tasks lists for the person taking care of the cattle.

Improved utilisation of cattle
The Multiline production planning system produces comprehensive data on feeding, animal condition and yield. With the help of this data, many issues can be tackled swiftly such as excess weight gain within heifer groups and cows prior to calving, or addressing issues such as heat and fertility problems resulting from ketose with cows pregnant for the first time. The Multiline can for example optimise the amounts of feed amounts between TMR-feed and the feed station.