Precision livestock farming technologies including sensors, computer vision, and AI are enabling continuous, automated welfare monitoring that was previously impossible at commercial scale.
Precision livestock farming technology represents a genuine opportunity to improve animal welfare at scale by enabling continuous monitoring that human observation cannot achieve. A stockperson cannot observe every individual animal in a large herd or flock at all times, but automated systems can. Early detection of welfare problems - lameness, illness, nutritional deficiency - before they become severe is one of the highest-leverage welfare improvements possible in large-scale production. The challenge is ensuring that data generated by these systems is actually used to trigger welfare interventions.