Socially sustainable dairy calf management for better animal welfare – how can technology contribute?

Restrictive diets have been highlighted as a critical calf welfare concern. Today most farms have not adopted biologically normal milk allowances (BNMA) corresponding to 20% of the bodyweight. Manual feeding makes reaching BNMA for calves >3 weeks of age difficult using two meals.

However, in recent focus group interviews, most of our participants did not find it feasible to supply three meals for economic but particularly social reasons (life beyond work). Our study shows social sustainability in calf management as one of the most important obstacles for reaching BNMA.

The aim of this proposal is to understand how technology (particularly automatic milk feeders - AMF) may improve social sustainability and work engagement in dairy calf management and increase the potential for calves to receive BNMA.

It investigates best practices in technology use and defines meaningful technology use and design in three qualitative work packages (WP1-3). WP1 uses a focus group interview to reveal central concepts for the successful use and design of AMF.

In WP2, we use in-depth interviews to investigate attitudes and perceptions to BNMA, technology use and how it affects work and social life for owners and care workers, routines important for calf well-being and viewpoints regarding calves, calf management and calf care workers.

In WP3, we co-create a meaningful design proposal for use and design of AMF together with owners and staff on dairy farms based on a well-being-driven design.