Stakeholders’ perceptions of precision livestock farming to improve small ruminant welfare
Résumé
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 were
taken 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, the
highest 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 for
several 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 stakeholders
also 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 research
and innovation programme grant no. 862050.