Ree Smartcow - Precision Dairy Farming

The laboratory aims to offer to the student the opportunity to understand the current challenges of precision livestock farming using tools and sensors that are used in research and in the commercial field to monitor the conditions of animals and their performances as well as the efficiency and adequacy of the systems and structures that come into contact with them. The topic will be addressed as a research project, starting from a theoretical study of a problem, formulating a hypothesis, collecting, processing and interpreting measured data.

The student will learn about the main indicators and tools to monitor and study the main aspects related to dairy farming: milk production and quality, well-being and behavior, health, farming environment, efficiency of plant and equipment operation. He/she will acquire the ability to process, integrate and interpret output data from sensors, instruments and other sources, also developing simple forecasting models for decision support. The activities will favor the development of soft skills such as team working, leadership, autonomy, problem solving, communication skills.