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Within the TechCare Project, a list of Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) tools, with potential for monitoring animal welfare in small ruminant production, was formulated in TechCare Countries. The opinions of stakeholders weretaken into account after consultations, following a multi-actor approach. The OPERA method was used to reach consensus between stakeholders. Overall, stakeholders’ opinions appear rather uniform. Regarding meat sheep, thehighest appreciated PLF tool was the automated weighing and low frequency identification (LF) system, followed by localisation (GPS) and 3-axial accelerometers, as well as new ultra-high-frequency (UHF) eartags and readers forseveral uses (e.g. water intake). The most suitable PLF tools selected for dairy sheep were environmental-air quality sensors (e.g. weather stations), followed by automated milk recording, LF and automatic weighing. As for dairy goats,in addition to those selected for dairy sheep, the new UHF eartags and readers were prioritized. Regardless of the production system, the most important traits of selected PLF tools were low cost and ease-of-use. Most stakeholdersalso expressed concerns on their ability to collect and handle the data generated from PLF tools for monitoring individual animals. TechCare (www.techcare-project.eu) receives funding from the European Union’s H2020 researchand innovation programme grant no. 862050.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of evaporative cooling at two different frequen-cies per day on the respiration rate (rr) of lactating dairy cows, considering cow-related factors. twenty multiparous israeli holstein dairy cows housed in a naturally ventilated cowshed were di-vided randomly into two treatment groups. the cows of both groups were exposed to 3 or 8 cooling sessions per day (3xcool vs. 8xcool, respectively). the rr was observed hourly, with a maximum of 12 measurements per day. Body posture (standing vs. lying) was simultaneously documented. milk yield was recorded daily. coat color was determined from a digital photograph. the rr of standing and lying cows was lower in the 8xcool group (60.2 and 51.6 breaths per min (bpm), re-spectively) than in the 3xcool group (73.1 and 65.6 bpm, respectively). For each increment of five kilograms of milk produced, rr increased by one bpm, and the rr of cows in early days in milk (dim) was 12.3 bpm higher than that of cows in late dim. in conclusion, eight cooling sessions per day instead of three lead to a rr abatement in heat-stressed cows under hot conditions, and cow-related factors directly impact the rr during heat stress assessment

Tae benefit of precision livestock fanning (PLF) is well recognised in the more intensive livestock sec.tors, such as dairy, pig and poultry. However, PLF has not been applied as \videly in species where animals are con5idered to have a lower individual value or with Jess ec.onomic interest, as is the case in small ruminants (SR), or in extensive management systems. This is despite the very significant production, welfare, and labour efficiency advantages that can be achieved by applying PLF in these contexts. Despite their crucial role for the rural economy, society, and environment and their importance in ecosystem services such as biodiversity and maintaining cultural heritage, SR systems face issues such as challenging clinlatic and topographie.al conditions, Jack of labour and low profitability that could be alleviated by introducing PLF technologies. Research on PLF for systems bas been recently emerging, but perhaps Jacks a joint up approach. Tiris paper present an overview of current research and potential for future applications in several countries of PLF for SR system5 on varions themes, highlighting the wealth of potentially available solutions and prototypes. The topics presented cover feed and water intake, health, disease and parasite control and mo1ritoring, fertility and reproduction management, grazing and predation control, animal locations and management monitoring, lambing and mismothering issues, as well as lactation monitoring. Issues relating to acceptability, economic relevance, technology readiness level (TRL) and industry engagement will also be discussed.

International audience

Our international, interdisciplinary team develops an integrated model to support sustainable, regional and animal-specific adaptation of naturally ventilated dairy barns to climate change. We link numeric models with different temporal and spatial scales and cross-validate with on-farm data and lab experiments.

ispartof: Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology vol:2 pages:405-415 status: published

For the planning of the barn layout, cow traffic and facility locations (such as: cubicles, forage lane, etc.), the farmer has to know the milking robot utilization of his production herd. Therefore, prediction of the milking robot utilization has to be done. The milking robot utilization depends on the cow’s visiting pattern and capacity of the milking robot. The models used for prediction were generalized multiple regression models. Behavioural data were obtained by video observations and electronic measurements. For eleven behavioural variables used in the model from all three experiments, only two (number of cows and sum of milk yields per hour in kilograms) were statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05) and measurable on a commercial farm. A part from the milking capacity, forage feeding routine influenced utilization of the robot. Combined cow traffic used in experiments appeared to be feasible.

Precision feeding of dairy cows facilitates optimization of milk production. Accordingly, the objective was to study the effect on milk production when stepping up concentrate at 3 rates in early lactation according to individual daily rumination time (RT). Data was collected in 3 commercial dairy herds with Holstein cows, where daily RT was recorded by rumination sensors (Qwes HRTM). Cows were fed a partially mixed ration and concentrate at the milking robot. Concentrate was stepped up over the first 28 and 17 days in milk for primiparous and multiparous cows. Cows were assigned to either an experimental group (EXP) or a control group (CON) immediately after calving. In addition, all cows in the EXP and CON were assigned to either a high, medial or low rumination group according to their individual RT. Cows in the EXP assigned to the high (EH), medial (EM) or low (EL) rumination group were stepped up to 6, 4 or 3 kg concentrate during the experimental period. Concentrate was stepped up to 4 kg during the experimental period for all cows in the CON, regardless of whether the cows were assigned to the high (CH), medial (CM) or low (CL) rumination group. In total, 40 and 41 primiparous cows and 66 and 66 multiparous cows in the EXP and CON finished the trial. Primiparous cows in the EXP showed higher ECM yield than primiparous cows in the CON (26.1 vs 25.6 kg per day). The same applied to primiparous cows in the EL compared to CL (25.6 vs 25.1 kg per day). No effect on milk production was found for multiparous cows. In conclusion, adjusting the concentrate allocation rate in early lactation based on RT shows a potential effect on ECM yield for primiparous cows.