Mind the Market Opportunity: Digital Energy Management Services for German Dairy Farmers

Abstract

The adoption of farm management information systems (FMIS) is on the rise at German dairy farms given their benefits in supporting and automating decision-making processes. However, the offering scope of FMIS for dairy farmers is limited, with digital services mostly focusing on animal-related data and overall economic insights. By contrast, digital energy management services (DEMS) are not yet established as an integral part of FMIS despite their expected positive contribution to a dairy farm’s ecological sustainability and profitability. Against this background, the aim of this study was to find out if there is a hitherto undetected market opportunity for FMIS providers offering DEMS to German dairy farmers. To achieve this aim, the as-is market offering was screened looking at seven pre-defined DEMS, and customer preferences were investigated based on online survey responses from 74 German dairy farmers. Results of the survey indicate a high relevance of DEMS, which especially applies for optimization-oriented energy data analyses. The market coverage of such digital services, on the other hand, is not yet adequate. Hence, for providers of FMIS, we see a promising market opportunity to expand their offering by starting to deploy selected DEMS to German dairy farmers.

Keywords

• digital farming
• farmer survey
• FMIS
• profitability
• sustainability