Integrated Environment Management System in dairy barns to improve the welfare and productivity of the cows

The rearing of the dairy cow has greatly evolved in recent years with the acquisition of new knowledge and the development of innovative technologies, with particular attention to animal welfare and comfort. The ability to keep dairy farms competitive in the international milk and raw materials market is largely due to the ability to achieve high standards of efficiency and quality in the various stages of the production process that takes place in the barn.
A factor limiting the efficiency of the production process in the barn concerns animal welfare which is related to the state of health of the animals themselves and influences the quantity and quality of their productions. Breeders often do not have adequate tools to evaluate the adequacy of the structures and management of the barn in an objective way and to identify the critical points and interventions that can improve the situation in an integrated way. These limits require not only a widespread and intense information, dissemination and training activity, but also the availability of innovative systems able to provide precise indications and, when possible, directly control the conditions of the environment inside the stable.
Therefore, monitoring the living environment and the health state of cows is gaining attention for several reasons. First, these parameters show promising correlation with the cows’ milk productivity, which is a primary economic driver for livestock raising. Then, there are raising ethical concerns about the environmental and life conditions of livestock animals. Finally, there is the possibility to build models to enable a better understanding of several pathologies.