Novel precision livestock farming platform keeps all stakeholders informed
Animal welfare is an increasingly important focus of farmers as well as of consumers, many of whom consider the way animals are treated when making decisions. Currently, animal welfare assessment usually occurs once or twice a year with onsite visits. Increasing the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of welfare monitoring requires automated, real-time collection of accurate data via sensors and digitisation. Such systems will be particularly important to small farms without the same knowledge and resources of larger ones. A wealth of technology exists – particularly for cattle farming – but it has been underutilised for various reasons. The EU-funded ClearFarm project developed a precision livestock farming (PLF) platform for pig and dairy cattle farming in a co-design approach.
‘Design thinking’: Human-centred design
Given that ClearFarm wanted to increase transparency along all parts of the value chain, the team polled needs and preferences among a wide range of stakeholders. A ‘design thinking’ approach to problem solving and innovation was used to understand what stakeholders want and integrate that with what is technologically feasible and economically viable. Stakeholders included consumers, farmers, farmer co-operatives, processors and slaughterhouse operators, retailers, consultants and researchers, and animal welfare groups. Furthermore, design thinking is an iterative process. ClearFarm not only worked closely with these stakeholders during the definition phase but also got their feedback on the first version, which was key to making technical and conceptual improvements better in line with stakeholder visions. “One of the main things we learned from the project was that people have mixed feelings about using PLF on farms to assess animal welfare. While generally positive about it, they do have some concerns about the use of private data and the impact it could have on the human-animal relationship,” notes project coordinator Xavier Manteca of the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
PLF platform for pig and dairy cattle farming
ClearFarm worked with universities, research institutions and private companies, drawing on the expertise of many diverse specialists including scientists, animal welfare experts, data processors, sensor technologists, sociologists and environmentalists. It addressed the issues of data sharing with other farmers for benchmarking purposes, with control and certification organisations, with retailers, with market innovators, with governing organisations, and for monitoring. The result is a functional digital platform for stakeholders to provide animal welfare PLF data in pig and dairy cattle farming. It assimilates data on health, nutrition, comfort, emotional state and natural behaviour as well as environmental and economic sustainability. “The ClearFarm animal PLF platform integrates a plethora of data and ensures more effective data collection and analysis through AI. It enables pioneering harmonised data sharing, connecting stakeholders beyond the farm in the value chain,” Manteca explains.
The future of PLF
ClearFarm overcame the significant obstacles of COVID restrictions and produced an unexpectedly high number of peer-reviewed articles. The team is now working on integrating the platform into existing welfare assessment schemes for dairy cattle. In the case of pig farming, where existing technologies were less advanced, the team is developing improved, validated sensors for holistic welfare monitoring. However, Manteca concludes, “PLF technology can be extremely useful in assessing welfare, but it will never replace good stockmanship – demonstrated affinity for and empathy with livestock combined with patient, low-stress handling.”
Keywords
ClearFarm, farming, PLF, animal welfare, dairy cattle farming, pig, livestock, sensors, welfare monitoring, AI, precision livestock farming
