Y-Ware: Young-stock Welfare & Performance – Decision Making Platform
The key goal of agricultural and farm management is to drive profitability and maintain animal welfare standards. This is particularly crucial in the ruminant livestock sector, where three main variables determine success: production yield, cost and risk avoidance.
All three factors are even more critical for dairy and beef young stock. Currently, of the 2.5m calves born annually, 8% are either born dead or die within 24 hours, while a further 15% die during rearing, usually from diarrhoea or respiratory disease. As well as the huge welfare issue this presents, it costs the UK cattle industry around £80m every year.
Spotlight project
Identifying and eliminating the causes of young stock loss
Within the Ruminant Population Health Research Group, we are developing the Y-Ware system. An internet-of-things (IoT) based data collection solution, it’s been specifically designed to provide accurate health and welfare assessments for young stock, reducing and eliminating the cause of the current losses.
The project includes novel sensor development using cutting-edge hardware and software solutions; innovative methods for data integration, confidentiality and anonymisation; and machine-learning techniques for algorithm development.