Digital technologies in an animal-centric dairy industry

Customers and consumers around the world are increasingly interested in how their food is produced, including the quality of life experienced by the animals who produce it.

Introduction

AgResearch has spent the last five years investigating how farmers can use digital technologies and data sources to assist farm management decisions that could lead to improved outcomes for animal care and continue to meet market expectations.

This three-part webinar series shares the learning from a five-year collaboration between AgResearch, DairyNZ, Fonterra, and farmers on the potential of digital technology to measure, predict, and improve animal wellbeing, aid in farmer decision-making, and ensure that New Zealand’s pasture-based dairy farms enable cows to live a natural outdoor lifestyle which achieves good animal health and welfare outcomes.

Webinar 1

The link between animal wellbeing and technology, webinar 1 explores:

What might dairy farming look like in the year 2070?
What should we measure to understand cow wellbeing?
What technology are farmers already investing in?

Webinar 1: The link between animal wellbeing and technology

Webinar 2

Use cases exploring digital technology in the pastoral system, webinar 2 explores:

Measuring and predicting heat stress in New Zealand dairy cows
Proof of concept: Using wearable data for pasture management
Potential future technology to measure cow experience

Webinar 2: Use cases exploring digital technology in the pastoral system

Webinar 3

Building a ‘connected’ farm, our 3rd and final webinar explores:

Harnessing the value of multiple data sources to help create ‘cow-centric’ future farming systems
Insights from two commercial ‘connected’ farms
Does combining farm and animal data lead to improved decision-making?