Kontext

Dairy cattle farming is an important source of high-quality nutrition for the world's population. Technological advances have contributed to the intensification of livestock farming which has had positive economic repercussions due to the great progress in the animals productive performance. Such intensification has adversely affected other aspects of sustainability, like animal welfare, environment, worker safety and welfare. Negative effects require a new evolution in dairy farming to guarantee sustainable food for a consumer who questions intensive livestock production systems.
Although the arrival of dairy cattle automatic milking systems in Spain has been done with some delay comparing to North European countries, its implementation is expanding at a great speed and the number of farms with this production system grows exponentially. In 2019, CONAFE members with automated milking represented 7% of the total, while in 2022 this is 12%.
Innovation entails changes, which are experienced differently by each farmer. A main challenge is to turn the availability of information with "smart" technology to dairy farming into a point towards greater sustainability based on the connectivity, evaluation, anticipation of problems, inclusión and reflexivity.
Dairy automated milking has the challenge of adopting advanced technologies to use the large volume of data from the robot and requires reliable digital solutions to handle "intelligently" all the information available at the level of each animal. By eliminating daily contact with cows in the milking parlour, the sustainability of the livestock depends on a reliable tool for early detection of lameness and mastitis problems, and on the adaptability of its cows to the robot.