For economic reasons, technological innovations on a global scale are strongly aimed at large companies in favorable locations, but the first offerings are also slowly developing for family businesses in mountain areas. With the farm management tool FarmLife and the use of GPS collars for grazing animals, two technologies were presented as part of the symposium “Innovation, digitalization and the farm of the future - how new technologies are changing agriculture” at the Alpen-Adria 2023 agricultural fair in Klagenfurt . These are significantly supported by the HBLFA -Raumberg-Gumpenstein. Hans Egger and Eduard Penker, both from the Carinthian Chamber of Agriculture, reported on the tools. Following the event, the 2023 Innovation Prize was awarded in three categories.
The eco-efficiency research group, which developed FarmLife, and the Unterweger family from the Lesachtal in Carinthia third place in the agricultural and forestry business category . The dairy farm is located at 1,350m above sea level in a very steep location. Through the family's inner attitude characterized by positive values, production that is perfectly adapted to the location and the refinement of the milk in the farm cheese dairy, the Unterweger family shows us how successful even small mountain farms can be. In FarmLife, this basic attitude has led to a life cycle assessment using operational data with the label “eco-efficient”. We congratulate you on this and also on the innovation award you just received.
team
Dr. Thomas Guggenberger, MSc
Head of the Institute for Livestock Research
Dr. Markus Herndl
Soil Science and Lysimetry Department, Head of the Eco-Efficiency Research Group