Welfare priorities for dairy goat production and the potential innovative tools that could help monitor them, have been identified in the TechCare project. Next, those tools have been deployed on a research farm, where their capacity to help manage welfare is being tested. In Norway, one pilot dairy goat farm has been established at the Storsteigen College School in Alvdal to represent a summer-farm dairy goat system and also an indoor winter-farm system. Welfare priorities being tackled are: mastitis, lameness and ranking order (behavior). The innovative tools tested are: GPS collars, proximity sensors and accelerometer information for behavior observations, ultra-high frequency readers and low frequency readers for behavior, and weather station/sensors. All addressing welfare challenges of mastitis, lameness and behaviour. Regular dairy goat welfare assessments are also being carried out, to match any welfare issue with information gathered or transmitted by the innovative tools being tested. Further, data from the GoatMilkSCC-research project will support the work on mastitis detection. Issues of data collection, transfer and analysis are also being considered, as well as connectivity and infrastructure requirements. Data collected will then be included to those from the other pilot farms in the project, to help in the elaboration of early warning systems. Once testing on pilot farms is completed, the candidate tools will be considered deployed on commercial farms, for real conditions testing.

In the beginning of TechCare project welfare aspects in the production of meat/dairy sheep and dairy goats have been identified, prioritized and potential PLF tools have been identified and matched to specific welfare aspect to which they may contribute.

Following the above the tools have been deployed to research and demo farms where their capacity to help manage welfare is being tested.

In Israel, two pilot farms are being used; one in the ARO research farm - an extensive meat sheep system environment, and one to the east which unlike ARO farm – is also producing dairy (Ivry). Farms are similar in terms of climate and housing conditions. Welfare priorities being in the focus are: parasitism, under-nutrition. The innovative tool tested is: weighing trough with electronic identification, ultra-high frequency readers (for individual data collection), electronic weighing and water consumption meter. Regular sheep welfare assessments are being carried out, to match any welfare issue with information gathered or transmitted by the innovative tools being tested. Issues of data collection, transfer and analysis are also being considered, as well as connectivity and infrastructure requirements. Data collected is sent for further analysis in an automated computer system to be disseminated to farmer via a mobile application of an early warning system. Once testing on pilot farms is completed, the candidate tools will be deployed on commercial farms, for real-conditions testing.

TechCare project identified the welfare priorities for meat sheep, dairy sheep and dairy goats productions and the innovative tools that could monitor them. The adequacy of those tools to improve the management of welfare issues has been evaluated on research and demonstration farms. One pilot dairy sheep farm has been used in Italy, located in the North West of Sardinia (Bonassai farm AGRIS), representing the Mediterranean dairy sheep systems. Welfare priorities being addressed are: mastitis, under/malnutrition and gastrointestinal (GI) parasite in adult ewes. The innovative tools tested are: electronic identification weigh crate with autodrafter (for under-nutrition, parasitism), milk tank weighing scale (for under-nutrition, parasitism), milkmeters (for mastitis, under-nutrition, parasitism), and environmental sensors (for under-nutrition, parasitism). Sheep welfare assessments are also being carried out, to test whether information obtained from the innovative tools can predict and anticipate welfare issues. Data collection, transfer and analysis issues are also verified, as well as connectivity and infrastructure requirements. Early warning systems will be developed from the data collected, together with those from the other pilot farms in the project. Once testing on pilot farms is completed, the candidate tools will be deployed on commercial farms, for real-conditions testing.

Welfare priorities for each type of production (meat sheep, dairy sheep and dairy goats) and the potential innovative tools that could help monitor them, have been identified in the TechCare project. Next, those tools have been deployed on research and demonstration farms, where their capacity to help manage welfare is being tested. In the UK, two constrasting pilot meat sheep farms have been used; one in the North West of Scotland to represent the extensive sheep systems environment (SRUC farm), and one in the East of Scotland, to represent a semi-extensive sheep environment (MRI farm). Both farms are also opposite in terms of climate and rainfall. Welfare priorities being tackled are: lameness, parasitism, under-nutrition and ewe-lamb relationship (mismothering). The innovative tools tested are: proximity sensors (for under-nutrition, mismothering), accelerometers (for lameness, parasitism), ultra-high frequency readers (for lameness, mismothering), electronic identification weigh crate (for under-nutrition, parasitism) and environmental sensors (for under-nutrition, parasitism and mismothering). Regular sheep welfare assessments are also being carried out, to match any welfare issue with information gathered or transmitted by the innovative tools being tested. Issues of data collection, transfer and analysis are also being considered, as well as connectivity and infrastructure requirements. Data collected will then be included to those from the other pilot farms in the project, to help in the elaboration of early warning systems. Once testing on pilot farms is completed, the candidate tools will be deployed on commercial farms, for real-conditions testing.

In the TechCare project, IDELE is conducting trials in 2022-2023 in two pilot farms: meat sheep “Le Mourier” and dairy sheep “La Cazotte”. Technologies have been installed in these farms to monitor the animal welfare (AW) of adult or young sheep, mainly in sheepfolds: hydration, heat stress, housing conditions, lameness, gastrointestinal parasites and mastitis.

To monitor these AW challenges, the technologies being tested in France are: connected water meters, UHF identification tags, temperature, humidity and CO2 sensors in the sheepfold, weather station, self-weighing system for sheep, and milk tank scales.

The collection of data from this equipment is supplemented by a series of measurements and observations made directly on the animals: weighing of individuals, observation of lameness, respiratory problems, analysis of individual milk, observation of behavior, etc.

In the end, the objective is to know whether, thanks to the data collected by the equipment and sensors, it would be possible to detect an AW problem early. The hypotheses are, for example, an ewe that comes to drink less often than usual, could be a behavior potentially indicative of a current or future AW/health problem, as well as the strong demotion of a sheep in its milking order. Depending on the results of these pilots, the technologies to be deployed in farms for the large-scale study will be identified.

In Israel, two series of national workshops have been carried out to date. Workshop #1 (17 participants) was held online in May 2021 and focused on welfare issues and priorities affecting the Israeli sheep farming industry. Participants were highly experienced professionals and brought to the discussion technical and professional knowledge. Having representatives from the farming, research, veterinary, advisory, value chain and academic sectors. The consensus regarding the prioritisation of sheep welfare issues (meat and dairy respectively) in Israel was: 1. Undernutrition (insufficient feed to meet metabolic demand), 2. Mastitis, 3. Abortion, 1. Stocking density, 2. respiratory disease, 3. Feed competition (stocking density and feeder space). After discussion within the whole project consortium, precision farming tools that could potentially help manage some of these welfare concerns were identified and presented back to stakeholders for their feedback, during a second workshop held in September 2021. Attendees of workshop #2 were asked to give their opinion on each tool’s potential to tackle welfare issues and its cost-effectiveness. Tools discussed included ultra-high frequency and low frequency readers and ear-tags, accelerometer and GIS wearables, proximity sensors, electronic identification enabled weigh-crate and, water consumption sensors. Durability of the tools were mentioned as concerns regarding ongoing running and maintenance costs. The need for long term support services and dependencies was also mentioned.

TechCare's central approach is to engage stakeholders with the project's development. In the UK, two series of national workshops have been carried out to date. The first workshop (12 participants), was held online in May 2021, and focused on welfare issues and priorities affecting the UK sheep farming industry. Between them, participants brought a breadth and depth of experience to the discussion with representatives from the farming, research, veterinary, advisory, value chain and academic sectors. The consensus regarding the prioritization of sheep welfare issues in the UK was: 1) lameness, 2) ectoparasites, 3) nutrition (under- or over-), 4) gastrointestinal parasites, 5) liver fluke, 6) dystocia and 7) tail docking. After discussion within the whole project consortium, precision farming tools that could potentially help manage some of these welfare concerns were identified and presented back to stakeholders for their feedback, during a second workshop held in September 2021. The eight stakeholders who took part were asked to gauge each tool’s perceived potential to tackle welfare issues and cost-effectiveness. Tools discussed included ultra-high frequency and low frequency readers and ear-tags, accelerometer and geo-localization wearables, GPS and proximity sensors, electronic identification enabled weigh-crate and, environmental sensors. Practicalities (e.g. common grazing, dispersed flocks), longevity and durability of the tools were mentioned as concerns as were upfront costs and ongoing running and maintenance costs. The need for support services to assist with data processing, analysis and interpretation was also mentioned.

There have been two national workshops held in Ireland, to date, for the TechCare project. The first workshop had 19 participants and was held online on 14th May 2021. The workshop focused on welfare issues and priorities affecting the Irish sheep farming industry. Participants brought a lot of experience to the discussion with representatives from the farming, advisory, research, veterinary, press and industry sectors. The prioritization of sheep welfare issues by the stakeholders for a semi-extensive system was as follows, in order of prioritization: 1) mortality rate, 2) lameness and 3) nutrition (under- or over-); for an extensive system: 1) nutrition (under- or over-), 2) poor maternal relationship and 3) mortality rate. For the second national workshop held online on 1st October 2021, precision farming tools that could potentially help manage some of the previously identified welfare concerns were identified and presented to the stakeholders for their feedback. Ten stakeholders took part in the second national workshop. The potential PLF tools presented were: EID reader (low frequency), EID reader (UHF), accelerometer and geo-localization, GPS and proximity sensor, weigh crate, weighing and auto-sorting system, environmental sensors (temperature, humidity) and weather station. Following the discussion of each tool, each delegate completed a poll consisting of 7 questions. The delegates identified EID readers (handheld), weigh crates and environment sensors as the 3 PLF tools that may have potential for improving animal welfare. Some also thought that the weather station has potential in some cases e.g. in an extensive system where the flock owner lives a distance from their flock.

Within the TechCare project, all national workshop (NWS), in France focusing on dairy and meat sheep, have been organized twice in order to be as close as possible to relevant stakeholders for each production type. The methodology used for each NWS was defined jointly within TechCare project. Stakeholders invited to participate to each NWS were farmers, advisors, teachers, and decision makers.

The first NWS aimed to determine key welfare issues. Globally same welfare issues for the two-production type were rank in the top 10 most important one: health issues (gastrointestinal parasites, lameness), inappropriate housing, undernutrition, water availability and inappropriate bedding. Mastitis (for dairy ewe) and respiratory disease (for meat sheep) differed between the two-production type.

The second NWS aimed to identified appropriate technologies to assess the most important welfare issues raised during the first NWS. Indoor and outdoor weather station, water meter, water trough frequentation (thanks to UHF RFID), milk tank weight was considered by stakeholders as interesting to test and promising for an animal welfare early warning system.

Those NWS are key element in TechCare project to engage stakeholders and tailor solutions adapted to their needs and situation.

TechCare is a multi-actor project that involve stakeholders in every major decision. Therefore, two workshops per year are foreseen in each country, to consult stakeholders. The first Romanian workshop was held online in April 2021 with the aim to prioritize the welfare issues in dairy sheep farms. After sub-groups and all 30 participants discussions the most important welfare issues for dairy sheep farms in semi-extensive rearing system were: 1) gastrointestinal parasites, 2) lameness, and 3) mastitis. Also, inadequate or contaminated water, respiratory infection, malnutrition and ectoparasites were issues that put the sheep health at risk. The second workshop took place online in July 2022, with 16 participants. The aim of this workshop was to prioritize the PLF technologies to be used in large scale study to be organized in Romania, in order to approach the identified welfare issues. Participants were informed about the welfare issues that were considered important by stakeholders from other partner countries. A list of PLF technologies were presented and after discussions, each participant was asked to nominate 4 of them. The most frequent technologies to be used in large scale studies were considered to be the weather station, the automatic weighing platform, and the EID-RFID reader. Also, accelerometer with geo-localization and electronic milk meter were of interest. Criteria to choose the PLF technologies were considered to be price, durability, maintenance costs, ease of reading and interpreting the data.

For a constant feedback and knowledge exchange in the Spanish TechCare project, a multi-actor approach was followed. In this regard, 2 National Workshops (NW) were done online to transfer and validate the project outcomes. The NW1 (June 2021) aimed the prioritization of a list of sheep and goat welfare issues, previously elaborated by the TechCare consortium, by the stakeholders. A total of 47 stakeholders participated in the NW1. The prioritized welfare issues depended on species and systems, and were: meat sheep (1, nutrition; 2, housing and ambient conditions; 3, stocking density), and dairy sheep and goats (1, mastitis and milking; 2, nutrition; 3, housing and ambient conditions). Similarly, in the NW2 (July 2021), after the selection of a list of precision livestock farming (PLF) tools and sensors made by the consortium, the stakeholders prioritized those potentially able to detect the previously identified welfare issues. A total of 46 stakeholders attended NW2. The prioritized PLF tools and sensors for small ruminants in Spain, according to species and production systems, were: meat sheep (1, weather stations for outdoor-indoor; 2, automatic scale and LF transponder’s reader; 3, UHF transponder tags and readers) and dairy sheep and goats (1, weather stations for outdoor-indoor; 2, electronic milk meters and LF transponder’s reader; 3, automatic scale and LF transponder’s reader). Stakeholders expressed their concerns about the costs (acquisition, running and maintenance), technology requirements (electric power, internet or satellite services), easiness of use and lifespan.

The TechCare project engage the small ruminant livestock sector in Norway for input on needs and solutions for technology to enhance animal welfare. Work meetings (digital) with both the sheep and the dairy goat sector were conducted in the spring of 2021 where animal welfare challenges were discussed and ranked. Both farmers, advisers, veterinarians and researchers participated. For dairy goats, mastitis, lamb loss and agonistic behavior/social interactions were identified as the most important challenges. For sheep, lamb mortality, animals lost and disease were prioritized as the most important animal welfare challenges.

In TechCare, technology solutions have been identified and described by the project group. Suggested solutions relevant to handling the various animal welfare challenges were presented and discussed in stakeholder meetings in September 2021. Participants were asked to discuss which technological solutions were considered relevant, and further point out the three most important for tackling welfare challenges. The development of RFID readers and ear tags, motion sensors and GPS tracking were considered the most relevant. These technology tools can help understand normal behavior in sheep and goats, and thus uncover deviations. Further, milk meters and detection of mastitis in goats are a main interest. Mobile coverage, battery capacity and costs were pointed out as concerns. Also, available support is important to ensure appropriate implementation.

During the first year of the TECHCARE project's activities, two National Workshops were held, in virtual mode, involving all the actors of the sheep and goat value chain, the so-called stakeholders, such as breeders, nutritionists, slaughterers, veterinarians of the national health service and freelancers, representatives of trade associations (e.g. National Confederation of Farmers) as well as researchers.

During the first workshop, the TECHCARE project was presented and the stakeholders' decision-making role during the project activities was explained. Thanks to their help, the main welfare priorities on dairy sheep farms were decided, which in Italy are mainly related to nutritional problems (malnutrition and unbalanced diets) and health issues (parasitosis, mastitis and lameness) as well as adverse weather conditions, inadequate barn conditions or predators.

The second workshop was dedicated to gathering stakeholders' opinions on potential technologies and digital tools that, applied in livestock farming, could be used to produce early warning systems to improve the management of welfare problems identified as priorities.

In this regard, the milking machine with flow meters for individual measurement of milk production was the most popular technology followed by the automatic weighing with auto-drafter, low frequency electronic identification, weather stations and the portable somatic cell counter. All these technologies aroused much interest among stakeholders although their cost is the major limitation for on farm adoption.

In the context of TechCare project, two National Workshops (NWs) took place in Greece during last year (2021). The main objective for the 1st NW was to prioritize the main welfare issues in the value chain of small ruminants’ farming at national level. The 2nd NW was focused on the evaluation of the Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) tools that can tackle those welfare issues. The main welfare issues that were recognized by the Greek stakeholders during the 1st NW were: housing & environmental conditions, lameness, and malnutrition for dairy sheep farming. For dairy goat farming, the main welfare issues were: food competition, insufficient bedding, and mastitis. During the 2nd NW, the Greek stakeholders regarded weather and air quality sensors, electronic milk meter, and EID reader (UHF) – RFID as favourable PLF tools that can tackle welfare issues in the value chains of both dairy sheep and goats. The opinion of the TechCare stakeholders is considered of high importance in the TechCare project towards the adoption of PLF tools in the small ruminants’ value chain.