Smart4Welfare

Technological solutions and dairy herd health programs have emerged as tools to promote the health and well-being of dairy cows to meet societal demands and support the sustainability of dairy production. However, their widespread use is hampered by a lack of systematic knowledge about the underlying factors that influence the adoption of technological solutions and the utilization of herd health programs on dairy farms.

The Smart4Welfare project investigates technological solutions used in dairy herds to assess animal welfare, the structures of dairy herd health programs, and the socio-economic factors behind the utilization of technologies and implementation herd health programs in Finland, Germany, Estonia, and Slovakia. By combining case studies, expert interviews, farm surveys, workshop discussions and international workshops, this study explores dairy farmers’ and value chain actors’ perceptions of the drivers and barriers to adop technological solutions and assesses their views on their role in maintaining and implementing dairy herd health and welfare. The study analyses the structure of dairy herd health programmes in partner countries and their incentive and payment systems, and surveys dairy farmers’ and stakeholders’ views on the implementation and usefulness of the programmes in ensuring animal health and welfare. The study also examines the socio-economic drivers and impacts of technological solutions and herd health programmes from the perspective of dairy farmers and explores how the public and private sectors could encourage dairy farmers to adopt technological solutions to improve dairy cow health and welfare, promote company finances and management and ensure production sustainability.

High-level multidisciplinary expertise, stakeholder participation and effective communication and dissemination ensure that the project results support the development of viable technologies, increase technology uptake, improve the utilization and efficiency of herd health programmes and support the creation of public and private policies to promote sustainable dairy production.

The project will be implemented in 2025–2028 as part of the European Partnership on Animal Health and Welfare programme. The project consortium includes The Unit of Measurement of the University of Oulu from Finland, the Estonian Dairy Cluster (coordinator), the Technical University of Munich from Germany and the National Agricultural and Food Center NPPC from Slovakia.

The Unit of Measurement Technology of the University of Oulu is responsible for the Finnish implementation and communication of the project.