Technology including sensors, cameras, AI and wearable devices is increasingly used to monitor animal welfare at scale, enabling earlier detection of welfare problems and more objective assessment of conditions.
Welfare monitoring technology has the potential to transform our ability to identify and respond to welfare problems at scale. Automated systems that flag individual animals showing early signs of lameness, illness or stress could enable intervention before suffering becomes severe. The challenge is ensuring that technology is used to improve welfare outcomes rather than simply to reduce labour costs in intensive systems that remain fundamentally welfare-compromised. Technology-enabled monitoring should be combined with genuine improvement in housing conditions, not used as a substitute for addressing root causes of welfare failure. Privacy and data security considerations are also relevant as farm data systems become more connected.