Sustainable Precision Dairy Farming: Bridging Animal Welfare And Stakeholder Concerns About The Use Of Precision Dairy Technologies

PROJECT SUMMARY Instructions: The summary is limited to 250 words. The names and affiliated organizations of all Project Directors/Principal Investigators (PD/PI) should be listed in addition to the title of the project. The summary should be a self-contained, specific description of the activity to be undertaken and should focus on: overall project goal(s) and supporting objectives; plans to accomplish project goal(s); and relevance of the project to the goals of the program. The importance of a concise, informative Project Summary cannot be overemphasized. Title: Sustainable precision dairy farming: Bridging animal welfare and stakeholder concerns about the use of precision dairy technologies PD: Costa, Joao H.C. Institution: University of Kentucky CO-I: Silvestri, Simone Institution: University of Kentucky CO-I: Campler, Magnus R. Institution: University of Kentucky CO-PD: Eckelkamp, Elizabeth A. Institution: University of Tennessee CO-I: Schexnayder, Susan M. Institution: University of Tennessee CO-I: Proudfoot , Kathryn L. Institution: University of Prince Edward Island CO-I: Ventura, Beth A. Institution: University of Minnesota Collaborator: Black, Randi A. Institution: University of California CE Good animal welfare is paramount to the dairy industry, including producers, processors, distributors, and cooperatives. The development of a new, accurate, and remote welfare assessment benchmark using validated multi-variable precision dairy technologies (PDTs) has the potential to increase the sustainability of the dairy industry in the future. PDTs allow for real-time, continuous recording of animal behavior and other animal-based outcomes at the individual animal level. Before these technologies can be useful in assessing animal welfare, predictive models and validations must first be done. Additionally, although technology may be useful to identify animal welfare concerns on-farm, dairy producers must be willing to adopt these technologies, see value and trust in these tools, and make sense of the data. Concurrently, there is a risk that investment in and adoption of novel technologies may be futile if these technologies are ultimately rejected by society. Therefore, the public must be engaged to establish which aspects of these technologies may generate social acceptance or concern. Thus, our proposed integrated research and extension project aims to bridge the use of PDTs with the social aspects of animal welfare. We will develop models and validate the use of multiple, integrated technologies to predict common animal welfare assessment outcomes that can be monitored remotely while simultaneously engaging dairy producer and the public in two-way conversations about the role of these technologies on-farm. Our multidisciplinary project will integrate scientific assessments of animal welfare, artificial intelligence, machine learning, dairy production knowledge, and social science to provide practical recommendations for the sustainable use of PDT on-farm. This file MUST be converted to PDF prior to attachment in the electronic application package.