CowTalkPro: How to assess the welfare and health of cattle continuously and automatically?
Farmers often become aware of health and welfare issues through direct observation of animals, which prevents them from spending time on other farm activities. In addition, direct observation often detects problems when production or welfare have already been affected.
AWEC together with researchers from the Ramón Llull University (La Salle-URL) are working on the CowTalkPro project, which consists of developing an acoustic sensor to detect sounds in cattle, such as vocalizations or cough, and thus be able to monitor the welfare of animals. The project started in January 2022, and will last for 2 years.
The objective of the project is to identify respiratory diseases in calves, whereas in cows is to detect problems during calving, as well as pain during the dry-off period (cessation of milking). In addition, it aims to monitor the quality of handling prior to slaughter in the slaughterhouse. The proposed technology will allow early detection of problems that will be notified through an application into a portable device such as a smartphone, facilitating early intervention, minimizing the impact on well-being and improving animal production.
CowTalkPro is funded by the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) with funds from the European Next-Generation-EU program and has been supported by Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.