A new “dairy barn of the future” merges animal freedom, smart tech, and transparent research to redefine modern farming.
Family herds with access to open pastures rather than spending every day in crowded barns under social stress: a national research consortium, including Neubrandenburg University of Applied Sciences, the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI), and the Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN), is demonstrating how modern dairy farming can unite animal welfare, practical operation, and transparency.
What happens when cows are free to choose whether to stay indoors or go outside? When calves grow up alongside their mothers, and visitors can observe both the animals and the ongoing research without causing disruption? These questions are explored in the Invited Review titled “Dairy Barn of the Future,” recently published in the Journal of Dairy Science.
The concept centers on a family herd system that maintains cow-calf contact, offers a large free-lying area, provides year-round access to pastures or paddocks, integrates automation and sensor technology, and includes a visitor corridor for safely viewing daily barn life.
“With this publication, we are presenting the concept in a comprehensive scientific manner – and highlighting the opportunities for research into animal welfare, resource efficiency and biosecurity, as well as for putting new concepts into practice. We are showing how animal welfare and modern agriculture go hand in hand.
Dummerstorf is ideal for this – there are many research institutions here that deal with animal welfare, right next door to each other, pasture land borders the campus, and we have the building permit. The digital barn simulation is ready – now we want to build the barn as a real-world laboratory together with partners,” says Prof. Dr. Lisa Bachmann, professor at Neubrandenburg University of Applied Sciences and research assistant at the FBN (project management).
