Integrating innovative TECHnologies along the value Chain to improve small ruminant welfARE management

3rd series National Workshops

3rd series of TechCare National Workshops (NWs)
Topic: Early Warning (EW) algorithms and applications for small ruminants’ farming
When: 11/2022 till 04/2023
Where: 9 countries (France, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Norway, Romania, Spain, UK)
No. Participants: 299
NWs Summary: A common list of materials was prepared for the 3rd series of NWs comprising the workshop invitation together with a consent form for the participants, the workshop agenda, a survey concerning the perspectives of stakeholders on the Precision Livestock Farming, a short presentation of the main key points, aims and objectives of TechCare project and a mock app as an example of EW applications. The stakeholders were asked to provide their opinion on EW apps and algorithms and the potential favorable characteristics that would find useful through a free conversation aiming to merge different opinions and aspects into a common consensus. Finally, the local stakeholders were also asked to comment on practical technical issues such as connectivity, signal quality issues, data management issues etc.
Main Outcomes: The 3rd NWs revealed a strong consensus among stakeholders regarding the need for customizable, user-friendly EW tools tailored to the specific needs of small ruminant farming. In France, participants emphasized the importance of utilizing existing farm data to establish clear thresholds for alerts, advocating for a straightforward alert system that differentiates between urgent and less critical issues. Similarly, stakeholders in Greece highlighted the significance of historical trendlines and expressed the desire for a flexible app that could easily integrate new tools or address emerging welfare concerns. Participants from Ireland and Italy stressed the necessity for data interoperability, including the ability to manually add and compare historical data to improve decision-making processes. Across other countries, additional critical features were identified; in Israel, the focus was on early warnings related to morbidity and inflammation, with an emphasis on tracking animal weight and movements. Norwegian stakeholders highlighted the need for real-time monitoring of individual animal health and behavior, advocating for a comprehensive EW app that consolidates all data systems. Romania underscored the value of correlating production data with environmental factors, while Spanish participants pointed to the need for welfare assessments covering various aspects such as health and nutrition. In the UK, the desire for an integrated scoring system connected to the EW application was expressed, along with the importance of user-friendly interfaces and effective data management across platforms.

Copyright pictures AGRIS, UAB, NIBIO, BUAS, ELGO-DIMITRA