Integration of animal welfare and grazing management into the digital evolution of livestock farming

The objective of this coordinated project is the digitalization of livestock farms under extensive conditions in Catalonia, Andalusia and Cantabria, providing an efficient and affordable tool (combination of accelerometers and geolocation collars) to improve productivity, animal welfare and grazing management to improve the quality of life of farmers. The project has the complementarity of two research teams: the IRTA Animal Welfare Program, which will provide experience in welfare, and the UCO Animal Production Systems Engineering Program, which will provide experience in grazing management. Herds of sheep and goats, cattle or horses (depending on location) will be monitored with smart collars to automatically collect data on their grazing and social behaviour, general activity, surveillance and habitat use. In vivo observations using focal sampling, Welfare Quality-based animal welfare assessments, physiological indicators (corticosteroids in faeces), and N content of soil, vegetation, and faeces will also be made to validate behavioral and environmental algorithms based on the parameters. necklace details. State-of-the-art modeling tools will be used, including machine learning and artificial intelligence.