Over het houden van en de omgang met dieren is de laatste decennia veel maatschappelijk debat. Of het nu gaat om houderijsystemen, ziektes die kunnen overgaan van dier op mens, dieren die worden ingezet in de sport of die leven in het wild. Het CoE-cluster dier/lectorenplatform DiP wil bijdragen aan …

Animal wellbeing is important and it is widely accepted that an animal’s basic needs must be fulfilled. Many factors affect wellbeing of dairy cows. Common health problems are lameness and subclinical mastitis. The aim of this study was to examine changes in proximity and automatic milk system (AMS) …

Farmers often install automatic cow brushes to promote grooming behaviour, potentially reducing stress. Health problems in cattle are typically accompanied by a suit of sickness behaviours and a reduction of low resilience behaviours such as grooming. Thus, decreased automatic brush use could be a potential …

The production of milk replacers (MR) originated in the 1950s as a side product of cheese production and is widely used in most developed countries by dairy farmers as a substitute for cow’s milk and it has been demonstrated that its use could improve the growth and overall health of young calves, which …

In the European Union, cattle registration has been harmonised, and every farmer has to report cattle deaths to a national computer database. However, there is no obligation to mention the reason for culling, death or slaughter. In dairy farming, the herd is constantly renewed by letting in some young …

Social dominance in cattle is important when resources are scarce and competitive situations occur such as in a queue in front of an automated milking system (AMS). We aimed to 1) create and validate an algorithm to automatically register waiting time in front of an AMS (WT_AMS) for individual cows and …

Several studies have suggested that precision livestock farming (PLF) is a useful tool foranimal welfare management and assessment. Location, posture and movement of an individual are key elements in identifying the animal and recording its behaviour. Currently, multiple technologies are available for …

Avocado farming is a popular enterprise among small holder avocado farmers in Meru-County Kenya. The sector is rapidly growing and the country is ranked as the 6th world producer of avocado. However, the developed avocado value chain is experiencing high food losses along different phases of the chain. …

Het afweersysteem van kalveren werkt bij de geboorte nog niet optimaal om infecties te bestrijden. Met name bij een hoge infectiedruk wordt er veel van een jong kalf gevraagd. Om inzicht te krijgen in de infectiedruk rondom het jonge kalf in relatie tot diergezondheid en -management in deze kritische …

The present work aims at providing broader insight into the environmental impact of milk production by comparing greenhouse gas (GHG) and nitrogen (N) emissions of milk production among the intensive and extensive dairy farming systems from production and land-use perspectives. Three dairy farms in the …