News – Alcantara Data Solutions

On the News: Enhancing the agri-food data ecosystem: Updates from ADC and the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance

Lucas — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 18:30:11 +0000

A recent event co-hosted by Agri-food Data Canada (ADC), which is based at the University of Guelph, and the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance brought together experts to share work that will make agri-food research data FAIR – findable, accessible, interoperable (easily combined with other data) and reusable. FAIR data is and will be high quality and useful to producers and researchers, both today and into the future.

“ADC’s work is focused on improving data quality, creating policy and being model data stewards. At ADC, we work with individual data producers to make their data is organized, secure and findable.”

- Dr. Michelle Edwards, U of G’s Director of Agri-food Data Strategy

About 70 in-person and online participants from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs joined the November event at the Ontario Dairy Research Centre (ODRC) in Elora. They heard from ADC experts about the newest iteration of the Ontario Dairy Research Centre Data Portal and other tools ADC is designing to help make agri-food data FAIR.

International collaboration supports home-grown insights

One of these tools was developed in collaboration with the Human Colossus Foundation, a Swiss non-profit organization. Called the Semantic Engine, the tool helps researchers build better documentation or data schemas, which describe the structure of data.

The new tool will be incorporated into the next generation of the Ontario Dairy Research Centre Data Portal, said Dr. Lucas Alcantara, manager of research centre data.

Alcantara has spent the past year building, testing and deploying an innovative agri-food data system that generates, stores and makes available measurements and information from over a dozen data sources in the dairy barn.

Data captured through on-animal sensors and from feeding, milking and ventilation systems is made available via the updated Ontario Dairy Research Centre Data Portal.

Data access portal builds efficiencies, supports innovation

Launched in spring 2023, the updated portal is already making a big difference to researchers, including two investigators who shared its impact with attendees at the November event.

Dr. Catalina A. Wagemann, a veterinarian and PhD student in the Department of Animal Biosciences at U of G, is investigating how to improve management decisions for the health and welfare of dairy cows. She said the portal has helped her in collecting and using research data.

“The platform is very user-friendly. With only a few clicks on the mouse, I can download all the info I need for the cows I need. I don’t have to log into different computers or software. Everything is in one place and we have access to it outside the research centre, which means the data is always accessible. I’m saving so much time.”

- Dr. Catalina A. Wagemann, veterinarian and PhD student at U of G

Dr. Arnulfo Pineda Baide, a post-doc in the Department of Animal Biosciences, studies nutrition and gut health in dairy cows during the transition period―the three weeks before and after calving. This work involves collecting more than 50 days’ worth of data per cow.

In previous studies at other institutions, Pineda collected data such as body weight, body condition and feed intake by hand.

“Here, I am amazed by the amount of data the farm collects; body weight and body condition score are coordinated by staff. The feed intake, we don’t have to do it by hand. It’s automatic.”

- Dr. Arnulfo Pineda Baide, Post-Doctoral Fellow at U of G

Building on success

The early success of the Ontario Dairy Research Centre Data Portal means Alcantara can turn his attention to future possibilities. He is excited by the challenge of replicating the data portal’s success at other research centres that are part of the provincial network owned by the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario (ARIO): the Ontario Beef Research Centre, Ontario Swine Research Centre and Ontario Aquaculture Research Centre.

“This tool allows us to make simple adjustments to deploy for other research centres. The system is flexible and robust. The Alliance is a great force pushing us to get all the data centralized, stored and available. ADC is supporting that development.”

- Dr. Lucas Alcantara

Edwards said the dairy data portal will help in developing a data ecosystem, which is one of the goals of the Alliance-ADC collaboration.

“We want to use the dairy portal as an exemplar for any other institution across Canada. Let’s find a way to bring it together and make the ecosystem a reality. It’s part of our vision.”

- Dr. Michelle Edwards

The Ontario Dairy Research Centre is owned by the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario and managed by the University of Guelph through the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance, a collaboration between the Government of Ontario and the University of Guelph.

This article was written by Jill Davies and originally published here.

On the News: U of G Project Improves Dairy Cattle Health, Helps Test Out New Data Portal

Lucas — Sat, 07 Oct 2023 18:30:02 +0000

University of Guelph researchers looking to reduce pregnancy losses in dairy cattle are also milking the benefits of a new data portal intended to improve livestock productivity in Ontario.

The dual projects came together at the Ontario Dairy Research Centre (ODRC) in Elora, Ont., which is owned by the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario (ARIO) and managed by the University of Guelph through the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance.

For a year, Guilherme Madureira, a PhD candidate in U of G’s Department of Animal Biosciences, monitored more than 100 lactating dairy cows at the centre for feed consumption, body weight, milking, and activity and rumination.

He’s studying the effects of omega-3 fatty acid supplements on inflammation, production efficiency and fertility in the animals.

At the same time, Dr. Lucas Alcantara, manager of research centre data, was completing implementation of the facility’s new data portal. This new platform allows researchers to securely store, retrieve and manage data recorded at the ODRC.

Madureira’s data set, collected manually through monitors and sensors at the centre, offered a valuable source of information to validate the new data portal. The portal connects to the same technologies that collected his information.

The portal data matched Madureira’s data set perfectly, demonstrating the accuracy and reliability of the recorded information. The match both validated his research and highlighted the platform’s effectiveness in maintaining data integrity.

The portal proved to be a powerful tool for collecting and organizing the vast amounts of data generated during the study

- Guilherme Madureira

He used advanced data management techniques to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the data extracted from backups of the portal computers. Madureira cross-referenced the numbers and data sets with existing scientific literature and previous studies conducted at the facility.

This data set will provide valuable insights into the effects of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation on performance, health and reproduction of dairy cows—the main drivers of productivity in livestock farming, contributing to the competitiveness and sustainability of Canada’s producers.

Sensor data and advanced data management techniques are generating new insights in animal sciences. Researchers at the Ontario Dairy Research Centre and the Ontario Beef Research Centre, also located in Elora, can use the data portal to efficiently construct and analyze their data sets by selecting specific variables, animals or time frames.

The technology enables researchers to use data to drive innovation and improve production, said Madureira.

An Arrell Scholar supported by U of G’s Arrell Food Institute, he is conducting his research as part of a larger study led by Dr. Eduardo De Souza Ribeiro, a professor in the Department of Animal Biosciences within the Ontario Agricultural College.

The project is funded in part by the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance, a collaboration between the Government of Ontario and the University of Guelph. The Ontario Dairy Research Centre and Ontario Beef Research Centre are owned by ARIO and managed by the University of Guelph through the Alliance.

This article was produced by the University of Guelph and originally published here.

On the News: Agri-food Data Canada Hosts Successful Spring Launch Event

Lucas — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 18:29:47 +0000

On June 2, Agri-food Data Canada (ADC) presented its Spring Launch event at the University of Guelph, spotlighting cutting-edge developments in agricultural data management and analysis. The event held at the Arboretum drew a diverse audience of researchers and data enthusiasts, all keen to lern more about ADC's efforts to construct a robust framework for data-driven research.

Dr. Lucas Alcantara, Manager of Research Centre Data, presented the work he developed for the Ontario Dairy Research Centre Data Portal, from optimizing IT infrastructure, to building data integration pipelines and an all-new web application. Together with students Anna Schwanke and Marijke Boerefyn, Dr. Alcantara demonstrated how the portal effectively enables smooth access to a diverse array of research data. The portal not only facilitates collaboration among stakeholders but also expedites scientific progress in the agri-food domain.

Check the official news article here.

On the News: Lucas Alcantara receives the “2022 OAC Outstanding Student Staff Recognition Award”

Lucas — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 20:46:18 +0000

Lucas Alcantara (left), Graduate Student Research Assistant, Department of Animal Biosciences; Rene Van Acker (right), Professor and Dean of the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC)

The annual Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) Outstanding Staff Recognition Awards at the University of Guelph, ON, were presented at the OAC Welcome Back BBQ held on September 20, 2022. These staff awards recognize excellent work performance, willingness to help others, contributions toward the betterment of workplace operations, and efforts in making OAC a better place to work overall. The recipients of these awards are nominated by their colleagues.

As a Graduate Student Research Assistant during his Ph.D. in Animal Breeding and Genetics at the University of Guelph, Lucas worked on number of data-related projects within the Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock (CGIL). As a highlight, he improved a data pipeline that collects and processes data from the Ontario Dairy Research Centre as part of the Resilient Dairy Genome Project, and developed a central database to house CGIL's research data to facilitate data access for students and visiting scholars.

Lucas is described as having excellent technical and team building skills. He is always willing to help others, while having a smile on his face. One of Lucas’s nominators had this to say:

“His passion for data science is infectious and you can tell he truly cares about the data management and technology infrastructure that supports OAC research. I am confident that he positively contributed to the life of our department with both soft and technical skills, and will continue to do so in the future.”

Check the official news article here.