– by G. Tesnière (IDELE)
During the first year of the project, the TechCare consortium has identified and prioritized welfare issues for each sector: dairy sheep, meat sheep and dairy goats. From these discussions with the stakeholders, the partners then looked for different technologies and tools capable of collecting data that could provide us with information on these animal welfare issues. The aim of the TechCare pilot farms is to test some of these technologies in applied farm conditions. 2022 marks the start of protocol testing work in the seven pilot farms of our project. The farms (see Fig. 1) are a mixture of production (meat and dairy sheep, dairy goats) and different systems (indoors/outdoors) to represent the majority of the systems studied in TechCare. Each of the farms has gradually been equipped with the sensors and tools necessary to carry out these study protocols. Despite delays in the delivery of equipment due to the current shortage of electronic components, the trials will be able to start partially this Spring! Stay connected to the TechCare project to learn more about each of the individual trials in the coming next newsletters!
