Precision livestock farming uses sensors, AI, and data analytics to monitor individual animal health and welfare in real time, offering potential to detect welfare problems earlier and more consistently.
Precision livestock farming holds genuine promise for improving farm animal welfare by providing continuous, objective monitoring that human inspectors cannot match. Automated lameness detection in dairy cattle, for example, identifies individuals needing treatment earlier than traditional visual inspection, reducing the duration of suffering. Early disease detection through feeding behaviour changes enables earlier veterinary intervention. However, precision technologies cannot replace good stockpersonship - data still requires human interpretation and action. The technology also raises questions about whether it enables higher stocking densities that themselves create welfare problems, requiring careful policy design.