Happy Cows, Happy Milk: Smart Cows and Quality Factors

Cows are one of the most important animals in our food industry, given the production of milk and related products. In this paper we present the first outcomes of a large study conducted on cows, studying cows behaviour via GPS tracking. The main goal of the project is to focus on quality factors, that is to say factors that are essential for the diary industry: cow health, quality of milk, milk taste. We turn cows into Smart Cows, and use the collected data to try to gain insights on what are the factors that positively contribute to the quality factors. The results, obtained from analysing outdoor behaviour of a large number of cows, are rather surprising, showing how not only physical aspects play a role, but in fact it is the social aspects of cows that play a key role for quality factors.