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Summary According to experts, pasturing in Europe has been decreasing for many years. Today, a lot of different pieces of regulation in Germany and in Europe exist, affecting farmers when they bring their cows to pasture. Furthermore, there are social requirements for pasturing, which need to be considered. Factors like increasing relevance of animal welfare, environmental protection, and the recreational use of the environment and esthetics of landscape come into play. Therefore, scientific research and new solutions are needed. This paper aims to give an overview across selected pasture-related regulations affecting farmers in Germany and Europe. Furthermore, aspects which are not directly regulated by the government, but are expectations of society will be highlighted. Concluding from this, technological possibilities - already on market and in the pipeline of scientific research will be described. Results show that today several different attempts are made to improve pasturing. Most of these attempts focus on improvement of management tasks. Attempts also directly focus on technological improvements. It can be concluded that new tools for pasturing can increase productivity and simultaneously decrease management tasks. Nevertheless, pricing of these tools as well es the amount of bureaucracy will be the most crucial factors for their adaptation.

The USA and Germany have compared the issues that surround the adoption of digital technology on the farm that will foster more environmentally sustainable food production/processing systems. Both countries lack robust broadband internet pathways to foster the adoption of these technologies. The problem is currently relevant to making this data technology available on every farm and field. The implementation of this infrastructure is even more important as society demands more and more information on the product and production process of agriculture and industry.

For a “system of systems” approach in agriculture, agricultural machinery is facing the challenge of bringing tractor-implement combinations and harvesting machinery to the IoT (Internet of Things). While standards such as the ISO 11783 (ISOBUS) have enabled seamless tractor-implement communications, the manufacturer-independent communication of tractors, implements and harvesting machinery with external sensors and different Cloud systems/services are still lacking. IoT ecosystems for agricultural machinery are gaining ground in the market to solve these problems. In this regard, an overview is given about the role of interfaces and middleware and how they can help to improve data flow, improve connectivity, compatibility and interoperability of digital products that farmers use.

Renewable and sustainable energy production is important in Germany. However, renewable energy production often depends on the variability of weather. Therefore, the flexibility of energy consumption is required. In dairy farming this flexibility can be realized by automation and sensor-based management of the working processes. For this, it is necessary to utilize storage capacities and shifting potential, especially since modern dairy farms can produce renewable energy themselves. The combination of these aspects may lead to a more flexible energy consumption or provision in the farm energy balance. Aim of this research is to identify and evaluate the potential of energy storage technologies in the dairy production processes. Subsequently these storage technologies are evaluated regarding the energy consumption. Additionally, the consequences of an autonomous energy and production management system for dairy farms are discussed. Due to the particular production processes, the energy forms—electricity, air pressure, hot water, and iced water —affect the applicability of different storage technologies. The storage of electrical energy shows the advantage of a more flexible transformability into other energy forms and bidirectional use. However, handling these flexible energy systems is very complex; thus, an integrated on-farm energy management system must consider all the relevant aspects.

Students in Germany often admonish the fact that their study programs focus too much on theory. This coincides with the observation of different scientists who are of the opinion that lectures, which normally only pass on theoretical knowledge, sometimes are not up to date anymore. Students in agricultural sciences proceed to work in multiple disciplines after their graduation, starting from microbiology up to farm management in practice. However, their knowledge about digital skills like data collection and management is not up to the tasks they encounter after their studies. To prepare them for a wide range of topics required for their future success, their study program follows a systemic and universal approach. The chair of Agricultural Systems Engineering started facing these problems and developed the lecture “Smart Farming” with a holistic view on digitally transformed farms and agricultural data mining. To meet the needs of today's students, different types of lectures and seminars as mentioned in science were taken into consideration. Therefore, also a research farm of the Technical University of Munich has been implemented as a pilot plant for digital transformation in agriculture, where scientific research and teaching will go hand in hand.

The environmental impacts of biogas systems are dependent on technical concepts and conditions of use. During a process chain, energy is consumed and greenhouse gases (GHGs) are emitted. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of biogas production is influenced by different factors, such as supplement of substrate, biogas production, and biogas and digestate utilization pathways. The goal of the study was to assess environmental impacts of biogas production in small scale in a South American country like Colombia. To calculate the specific GHG emissions of biogas production, the standardized methodology of LCA was followed, using the GaBi 6.0 tool (Thinkstep AG, Germany) with Ecoinvent database, while the ISO 14040 was used as standard for the LCA. The chosen substrates for the biogas production in small scale in Colombia represent common waste products of Latin American rural households. Most Colombian farmers own cows, therefore choosing cow manure as a basic substrate is a logic consequence. This substrate can either be directly taken out of the stable, if there is one, or must be collected from the pasture land and then be mixed with water to obtain a homogenous matter to feed the biogas digester. Where people cook, waste is produced, thus here we are taking a look at average medium-fat kitchen waste as an input option for the fermenter. A more specific waste product from daily cooking is potato peel because the potato counts as a staple food not only in Colombia but also in many South American countries. The co-substrate for the third scenario is the maize plant after the cob is harvested. The results show that the biogas scenarios are all a lot less climate-damaging than fossil reference systems which lead to clear recommendations to improve the management option by the biogas plant in Colombia.

Digital transformation in agriculture makes horse management technology available for farmers and veterinaries. This work compiles an overview of sensor systems currently available in Germany, discussing their usefulness and opportunities for improvement from a user‘s perspective. The systems have been identified by market and literature review and later categorized by their place of deployment, either in the stable, on the pasture or directly attached to the horse. Examples for subgroups show similar choices in technical specification like the built-in sensors, connectivity options and user interfaces. To gain further insights to the practicability of those systems, a survey has been conducted with German users of sensor systems in horse keeping. The questionnaire reflects on advantages and disadvantages in the use of the sensor systems. The results show that networking of the individual systems on farm-level would be desirable from the user‘s point of view. However, a solution that combines the different sensors and their data on farm level is not available. Thus, it is difficult for farmers to collect and aggregate their data. As a solution, open-source broker models are suggested, to act as middleware. They can integrate data from sensor-systems as well as external data sources. All the desired information can be displayed to end-users in customized user interfaces tailored to the individual stable or farm. With this kind of middleware, cyber-physical-systems can be built implementing a control-layer to automate tasks and documentation. Like this, farmers are supported to invest their know-how and time, only where it is most needed.

In this paper, we develop a simulation framework for analyzing and optimizing the large signal, dynamic switching behavior of power devices. This framework enables us to use TCAD models of our active devices, together with a broadband description of the application board. All elements are coupled through a mixed-mode SPICE instance. Simulated results, obtained with this new method for two application boards, are compared to measurement data and their agreement is analyzed.

Farm Management Information Systems and Wireless Sensor Networks can help German dairy farmers cope with rising complexity, documentation and animal health requirements. However, review and expert interviews with German farmers show that available solutions mostly are standalone systems. They lack compatibility with other technologies like already existing Information Systems and automation technology in dairy stables (e.g. climate-control, energy management or robotic milking). Farmers and researchers wish for a solution that integrates sensor systems, the control of actuators and existing information systems on dairy farms into one central information- and control-system. Moreover, an option to provide customized user interfaces to different stakeholders is required. This research shows, that a digital broker model as middleware offers manufacturer-independent opportunities to integrate existing information systems, wide arrays of different sensors and data transmission technologies. It further takes care of data management issues. The example of the TUM dairy research farm is shown, where a broker model is being implemented for research and teaching. Results show, that a broker model is a powerful tool to overcome most compatibility and connectivity issues and provides the desired solutions. However special aspects regarding connectivity must be taken into consideration on a dairy farm. Different transmission technologies are needed for different tasks, as a dairy farm offers very diverse conditions for IoT technology implementation. Customized user interfaces can be provided. Research is necessary regarding regulatory issues, and manufacturers need to be won over by the benefits of these systems, so that an integration of their technologies is facilitated.

In consequence of increasing workloads and the pressure to rationalize the workload in combination with increasing quality requirements of consumers, German dairy farms often invest in automation of single production processes. However, these automatic mechatronic systems are limited in their potential. As the more and more intelligent systems are not able to communicate among themselves. In this context, the approach of a cyber-physical system leads to new possibilities of product and process quality. The connection of all/several mechatronic subsystems causes to a more flexible production process which can adjust and optimise the production regarding external influences to the system. This results in an reduction of workload, automatic documentation and traceability of the product during the production process. Risks arise from the system itself. Hence, an appropriate user interface is necessary to control the system. For this, the farmer must be able to define boundaries in which the system can run on its own and where human authorisation is necessary.

Currently there are about 64.000 dairy farmers in Germany, with about 4 million dairy cows (DESTATIS, 2018b). While the number of farmers is decreasing during the last years due to structural changes in agriculture, the amount of cows stays nearly constant so the remaining farms are increasing in size. Nevertheless farm sizes are quite different in German regions so that the majority of farms has a size up to 100 hectare (DESTATIS, 2018a). The digital transformation of agriculture “agriculture 4.0” is in progress. Sensors are not only common in field machinery but also indoors. Automated milking systems or monitoring of air quality aspects are only two of numerous examples. In fact, there are also sensors attached to the animals, or even brought into the torso of it. This review shall have a look at sensor systems on German dairy farms and give information about sensor requirements for a farm. It has to be concluded that for example the IP standards are sufficient for sensor systems in farming houses. Having a look at sensors which are in direct contact to an animal, like rumen boluses or the like, further research has to be done and standardizations have to be implemented, especially due to food safety.