1. Developing and testing sensors and technology to
improve animal welfare
CowLabTM

2. For animal
welfare
A lot of research and great innovations and
implementations has been made to improve
animal welfare and productivity. But there is
still a lot to do.
6/19/2014© MTT Agrifood Research Finland 2

3. Quantify, quantify, quantify…
• As a trend people are quantifying themselves to make
right choices and to have a positive effect to their health
• Technology ment for humans can also be used to
increase animal welfare and productivity
6/19/2014© MTT Agrifood Research Finland 3

4. Sensor tehnology creates a
possibility for early detection of
developing illness or abnormal
behaviour which saves from a lot
of trouble and money.

5. But…
Why a cow would be
interesting?
Why cow?
Why lab?
Why CowLab?
And what is CowLab?

6. CowLabTM
• The unique research environment that utilizes
• latest technology in milk production
• A place to develop diagnostics and IT applications for livestock
production by collecting and mining data on behavior, health,
physiology and production

7. • CowLabTM provides a solution for
comprehensive testing of new ideas
and innovations in dairy cattle.
• For example, animal activity,
rumination, movements and location
in the barn, resting and standing
times, heat, feeding behavior and
milking parameters can be
measured and monitored with
validated equipment.
CowLabTM – Your innovation can be measured
6/19/2014 7© MTT Agrifood Research Finland

8. Biohacking cows
• Combination of technologies inside the
experimental farm and the CowLabTM
cloud service form together a powerful
tool like no other
• CowLabTM is a place to biohack
cows and develop products,
devices or applications to monitor
changes in behavior, health, and
productivity
6/19/2014 8© MTT Agrifood Research Finland

9. Reliable, easy, cost-efficient
• All the measurements can be done fast, automatically, cost
efficiently and without disturbing the animals.
• Automation also provides the possibility to measure more
than one feature simultaneously and therefore can provide a
comprehensive set of data.
• Data is recorded and transferred to a cloud service where it
can be easily accessed. This data can be mined to bring new
insight or perspective to things that you thought were
unnecessary.
6/19/2014© MTT Agrifood Research Finland 9

10. Latest technology in use
• Wireless rumination, activity, heat monitoring and
portable progesterone tester
• Extensive measurements of individual cows
parameters
• Location, feeding, activity, health parameters, production
• Barn environment monitoring
• Temperature, moisture, lighting, gases
• Large databanks for data mining
6/19/2014 10© MTT Agrifood Research Finland

11. Research barn, fact sheet
• Space for 120 dairy cows, loose housing system
• Milking parlor for 2 × 8 cows, herring bone
• Additional equipment for research purposes:
• Individual feed intake can be measured at the feeding
stations as well as through forage/TMR weighing
troughs
• Possibility to feed different forages and concentrates as
well combination of those at the same time
• 12 tied-up housing places for more individual studies
• The cows have access to pasture via an electronic gate
11© MTT Agrifood Research Finland