Beef Welfare Symposium fourth session to focus on technology in beef cattle welfare

Janice Swanson<swansoj@msu.edu>, Director of Animal Welfare and Professor, MSU Department of Animal Science and Large Animal Clinical Sciences and Daniel Thomson, Professor Animal Science, Iowa State University -

The Sixth International Symposium on Beef Cattle Welfare fourth webinar session to focus on technology on May 25 at 2 p.m. E.T.

Cattle unloading from a stock trailer.

Authors:

  • Janice Swanson, Professor in the Department of Animal Science and Large Animal Clinical Sciences at Michigan State University
  • Diego Moya, Assistant Professor in Beef Cattle Welfare and Behaviour Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan

The Sixth International Symposium on Beef Cattle Welfare fourth webinar session features experts discussing emerging issues in beef cattle on May 25 at 2 p.m. E.T. The symposium will occur monthly, on the fourth Wednesday, from February through June with presentations taking place from 2-4 p.m. E.T.

Attendees will hear from experts in academia from across the globe along with technology and health industry representatives. The session will look at how technology can be used by producers to improve the care of their cattle but also finding ways to use technology to monitor welfare in a more objective manner.

“This session is providing a unique opportunity for representatives from industry and academia to discuss the role technology should play in both helping producers with prevention, to improve cattle care and monitoring,” said Diego Moya, Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan. “In addition, we encourage producers and others to ask questions to enhance the discussion around technology, cattle welfare, and monitoring.”

The fourth webinar on May 25, 2022 features:

  • Mark Rutter, Professor of Applied Animal Behaviour at Harper Adams University in Shropshire in the United Kingdom will share a high-level view of where the industry is headed regarding welfare monitoring and assessment. In addition, he will offer a future forward view of what is possible in animal welfare and the challenges for implementation.
  • Daniela Melendez, DVM and research assistant at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lethbridge will share her latest research in pain assessment at time of castration. She will share what they have learned about using technology to make assessment of pain more objective and how this can more closely tie to the development of standards for animal care.
  • Justin Sexten, Ph.D., head of industry and Network Partnerships in Precision Animal Health at Zoetis will share how using precision technology gathered during key interactions with cattle can result in improved production management and allows producers to take a full ecosystem approach to the management of their operation.
  • Jason Nickell, DVM, Ph.D., Director of Insights and Outcomes for Merck Animal Health will share the latest in detection and prediction of BRD. In addition, he will share how technology can be used to help reduce production costs, improve animal welfare, and help ensure producers are exceeding expectations in welfare assessments.
  • Pieter Vogels, Co-Founder and Co-CEO or mOOvement, will share how GPS ear tags work for both researchers and producers. In addition, he will share the latest data from producers using the first commercial GPS ear tag that allows producers to monitor animals in real time across their operation.

“Technology is going to be key the future of beef production and welfare especially from the detection, predication, and monitoring aspects of cattle wellbeing. This session offers an opportunity for an exciting discussion between what the future holds and the challenges of application” said Dr. Janice Swanson, Department of Animal Science and Large Animal Clinical Sciences at Michigan State University. “I am looking forward to a robust discussion with the panel experts as we examine what is possible in managing entire operations in a new way that allows producers to tell a truly unique story about their operation and their assurance of cattle welfare to consumers.”

Throughout its five webinars, the symposium will bring together renowned beef experts to discuss their latest research findings and emerging animal welfare issues that face the beef cattle industry. The symposium features topics of interest for anyone connected to the beef industry from academia and government to beef producers and allied industries. Participants will be encouraged to ask questions and provide input to the conversation.

The webinar series is free, thanks to the generous grant support of the United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Those interested in attending may register at https://events.anr.msu.edu/isbcwmca/. 

For more information about the program visit: https://www.canr.msu.edu/beefwelfare2022/.

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit https://extension.msu.edu. To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit https://extension.msu.edu/newsletters. To contact an expert in your area, visit https://extension.msu.edu/experts, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).

 

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit https://extension.msu.edu. To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit https://extension.msu.edu/newsletters. To contact an expert in your area, visit https://extension.msu.edu/experts, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).

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