Page 13 - AWA Vol.42-No.1 issue

DAIRY FARMING

Animal welfare technology research wins award

Animal welfare is of paramount importance to New
Zealand’s dairy industry, with consumers increasingly
interested in how food is produced, not just the quality
of the final product.
International customers like Nestle, are placing great-
er emphasis on sourcing products from sustainable and
efficient farms, with animal welfare now recognised as a
key pillar of sustainability.
It is now vital for New Zealand dairy farms to demon-
strate high levels standards of animal care on-farm. Un-
derstanding how cows interact with their environment
is pivotal, and increasingly, technology is helping with
this.
DairyNZ scientist Dr Stacey Hendriks has studied the
behavioural and environmental needs of grazing dairy
cows and reviewed technology-enabled indicators that behavioural interactions (both human and animal inter-
apply particularly to New Zealand’s pasture-based actions and cows’ social behaviours.
dairy cows.
The team identified seven indicators related to the
Her research won her the prestigious T.R. Ellett Agri- physical environment and five focused on behavioural
cultural Research Trust Emerging Scientist Award at the interactions, which can now be measured using com-
2025 International Precision Dairy Farming Conference mercially available technologies.
held in Christchurch in December.
Interpreting animal welfare based on individual be-
Hosted by DairyNZ, the event was the first time the haviours, however, is complex.
event had been held in the Southern Hemisphere. It was
attended by almost 400 farmers, researchers, advisors, “Lying behaviour, for example, can vary significantly.
and technology developers from 22 countries. Both increases and decreases in lying time have been
observed in cows experiencing clinical health issues or
During her presentation at the conference, Stacey lying deprivation. This highlights that the relationship
showcased the potential use of technology in monitor- between behaviour and animal welfare is not always lin-
ing animal welfare for grazing dairy cows, emphasising ear and is influenced by many factors,” she says.
a shift from traditional, subjective measures to more ob-
jective, data-driven approaches. As a result, future research aims to explore more com-
prehensive approaches, such as combining multiple
Historically, animal welfare assessments in dairy farm- behaviours and other physiological and environmental
ing have relied on animal-based indicators like body data, to provide a more complete picture of a cow’s lived
condition score and coat condition. While often con- experience.
sidered the gold standard for evaluating the health and
welfare of dairy cows, they come with significant limita- Dr Hendriks sees a promising future for the integration
tions. of advanced analytics like machine learning into build-
ing a bespoke tool for pasture-based welfare assess-
“Animal-based indicators are subjective, require ment. She says that by combining multiple data streams
trained assessors, and only provide a snapshot of an an- from behaviour to environmental conditions, research-
imal’s experience at a given moment,” explains Dr Hen- ers could develop composite models that offer a more
driks. nuanced understanding of animal welfare.
Additionally, many of other indicators have been devel- “We believe technology-enabled indicators could pro-
oped for use on housed cows, making them less applica- vide real-time, scalable monitoring solutions for pas-
ble to the unique needs of New Zealand’s pasture-based ture-based welfare assessment,” she says.
grazing dairy cows.
“If technology can also alert farmers to potential wel-
Dr Hendriks and her research team at DairyNZ iden- fare challenges, such as heat stress, it allows them to
tified animal-based welfare indicators specifically suit- take proactive steps to mitigate the problem. This not
ed for New Zealand’s pasture-based dairy systems, and only improves animal welfare but can also result in eco-
then categorised these based on feasibility, validity, and nomic benefits, like reduced milk production losses.”
potential for wider uptake.
By focusing on providing farmers with timely and rele-
“We found that technology can play a significant role vant information, Dr Hendriks believes that technology
in improving the scalability and real-time monitoring of can complement traditional stockmanship, empowering
animal welfare,” says Dr Hendriks. farmers to make informed decisions that improve both
The team found most practically feasible indicators re- animal welfare and farm performance, while demon-
lated to health and nutrition while fewer options were strating the high standards of animal care on New Zea-
available for assessing the physical environment and land dairy farms. Circle 12 on enquiry card
Vol. 42 No. 1 11