Conference explores how technology can transform livestock farming

Posted Today

A conference showcasing the latest developments in precision livestock farming (PLF) has taken place at Harper Adams University.

Hosted by RAFT Solutions in partnership with Harper & Keele Veterinary School (HKVS) and InSHAW, the third Precision Livestock Farming Conference examined how technology can be used to improve animal health, welfare, sustainability, and farm profitability as part of balancing a ‘One Health’ approach.

Bringing together farmers, veterinary professionals, researchers, technology developers, industry leaders and policymakers, the conference offered a mix of presentations and panel discussions, alongside on-farm technology demonstrations.

The conference programme included speakers from across academia, industry and commercial farming in the UK and internationally. Professor Michael Lee, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Harper Adams University, opened the event.

He said: “The new dawn of Precision Livestock Farming is already here- how we use it to empower farmers for the greater good of nutritional security, environmental protection and animal welfare is in our gift.”

Delegates visited the Harper Adams Future Farm to explore different technologies and their practical applications, seeing how their use and the data gathered are transforming livestock farming. Three interactive sessions were held, drawing on the expertise of Harper Adams academics James McCaughern, Professor Liam Sinclair & Dr Gemma Charlton, paired with technology experts from supporting companies.

The  Future Farm provides opportunities to test technologies under real conditions, including investigating how animals respond to robots and how monitoring systems might improve our understanding of their behaviour and welfare. Bringing these disciplines together is important. Engineers can develop a robot that successfully navigates a livestock building, but animal scientists can help establish whether its presence changes how animals behave and whether there are implications for their welfare.

Featured world-renowned speakers, included Professor Daniel Berckmans Adjunct Distinguished Professor at the University of Tennessee and Emeritus Professor KU Leuven; Professor Henk Hogeveen of Waginingen University, the Netherlands, Professor Tomas Norton of KU Leuven in Belgium and David Speller of global farming AI platform Optifarm.

Professor Berckmans is widely regarded as the founding father of precision technology in livestock farming and commented “PLF technology is almost ready to play a part on every farm where it will have a positive impact on animal health, welfare and production and growing farm sizes will absolutely need these solutions. The next chapter in the PLF technology journey, when it demonstrates return on investment and inter-connectivity, is crucial for its future success.”

Professor Jonathan Statham, Chief Executive of RAFT Solutions, Chair of Bishopton Veterinary Group and Professor of Sustainable Livestock Health & Welfare at HKVS reflected: “We are delighted to have offered an opportunity to positively connect technology with livestock farming including farmers, vets, academia, policy makers, industry and sustainable food across all ages and sectors. The central importance of people and animals were key in delivering on the conference theme of ‘Balancing One Health: Technology for Animal, Human and Environment’.  Supporting stocks people to deliver excellent management is the aim: augmenting -not replacing- human input to deliver the highest standards of sustainable welfare and productivity down to individual animal level.  

PLF technology is here to stay and, from what we have learned today, likely to become increasingly common on all types of farms and better integrated with other systems. It offers the opportunity to target scarce resources-such as feed, medicine and fertiliser-to where it is specifically needed and reduce the waste of blanket approaches. This Third ‘PLF in Practice’ Conference has been clear in outlining the enormous practical potential of technology in livestock farming. However, PLF is not defined as support for technology, we have focused today on how technology can support humans and animals; we should not forget this distinction.”