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Advances in precision dairy and beef farming technologies

Code: 9781835451946
Publication Date: 30/06/2026
Extent: 500 pages
Series No: 181

Edited by: Professor Daniel Berckmans and Professor Tomás Norton, Katholieke University of Leuven, Belgium

Description

Precision livestock farming (PLF) technologies are gaining significant momentum due to their remarkable ability to measure and monitor physiological and behavioural traits in individual animals. With this data in hand, farmers are equipped with the tools to make more informed decisions which can benefit their farm operations and also ensure that the health and welfare of their animals is optimised.

Advances in precision dairy and beef farming technologies provides a comprehensive overview of the range of PLF technologies administered in dairy and beef farming, ranging from the use of machine vision and thermal imaging techniques to monitor dairy cattle health, to robotic milking and the use of virtual herding technologies. The book also reviews recent developments in technologies used to monitor pasture quality, such as remote and proximal sensors.

This book builds on a successful earlier volume published by Burleigh Dodds Science: Advances in precision livestock farming (2022).

Key Features

  • Reviews the range of precision livestock farming (PLF) technologies for monitoring dairy cattle health and milk quality
  • Considers the applications of PLF technologies across beef and dairy production, such as the use of automated feeding technologies and those used to monitor housing/environmental conditions
  • Discusses the range of supervised and unsupervised learning techniques in precision dairy farming, such as decision trees, support vector machines and neural networks

(Scroll down to 'Related Products' to purchase individual chapters from this book).

Note: This product will be available to order 90 days prior to publication.

£165.00
Table of Contents

Part 1 Technologies for monitoring dairy cattle

  • 1.The use of biosensors for monitoring dairy cattle: Seongwon Seo, Chungnam National University, South Korea;
  • 2.The use of thermal imaging techniques to monitor dairy cattle: Jérôme Bindelle, University of Liège, Belgium;
  • 3.The use of machine vision technologies to monitor the behaviour of dairy cattle: Oleksiy Guzhva, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden;

Part 2 Technologies for monitoring milk

  • 4.Developments in monitoring somatic cell count (SCC) technologies: Zhaoju Deng, Utrecht University, The Netherlands;
  • 5.Developments in milk component/quality monitoring technologies: Jose A. Diaz-Olivares, Katholieke University of Leuven, Belgium;
  • 6.Developments in milk yield monitoring technologies: Dan B. Jensen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark;

Part 3 Data processing

  • 7.Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in precision dairy farming: Kees Lokhorst, Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands;
  • 8.Supervised learning techniques in precision dairy farming: Manod Williams, University of Aberystwyth, UK;
  • 9.Unsupervised learning techniques in precision dairy farming: Sébastien Franceschini, University of Liege, Belgium;

Part 4 Applications

  • 10.Developments in automated feeding technologies: Carlo Bisaglia, Council for Research and Analysis of Agricultural Economics (CREA), Italy;
  • 11.Developments in technologies for monitoring/measuring feeding behaviour: Joao Costa, University of Vermont, USA;
  • 12.Developments in technologies for monitoring housing/environmental conditions: Marco Bovo, University of Bologna, Italy;
  • 13.Developments in technologies for monitoring the health of dairy cattle: Melissa Cantor, Penn State University, USA;
  • 14.Advances in monitoring natural behaviour and affective states/emotions: Angelika Haeussermann, Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, Germany;
  • 15.Developments in technologies for monitoring reproduction in dairy cows: Miel Hostens, Utrecht University, The Netherlands;
  • 16.Advances in robotic milking systems: Alex Bach, ICREA, Spain;

Part 5 Precision dairy and beef herd management

  • 17.Remote/proximal monitoring of pasture quality: Miles Grafton, Massey University, New Zealand;
  • 18.Developments in virtual herding/herd management technologies: Megan Verdon, University of Tasmania, Australia;
About the Editor(s)

Professor Daniel Berckmans has been associated with the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium for 40 years where he was Head of the M3-BIORES (Measure, Model and Manage Bioresponses) Division for over 20 years as a full professor. His team is widely regarded as a world leader in precision livestock farming, producing over 350 publications and over 450 conference papers, with 17 new products brought to market in collaboration with industrial partners and 20 patents submitted. Professor Berckmans is also editor of Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing’s previous volume Advances in precision livestock farming (published in 2022).

Dr Tomás Norton is Associate Professor of Sustainable Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) in the Division of Animal and Human and Health Engineering and research group of M3-BIORES, at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. He has co-authored over 100 publications, over 50 conference proceedings and 10 book chapters. Dr Norton is also Chair of Section II and Technical Board of the International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering (CIGR) and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. Dr Norton is also Series editor of the Springer Nature Book Series: Smart Animal Production.

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