Digital and precision livestock farming (PLF) technologies: gaps between sheep and goat farmers’ needs and existing solutions

Sm@RT is an EU Horizon 2020 funded project, involving Estonia, France, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Norway and UK, to encourage uptake of digital and PLF technologies by sheep and goat farmers. In a series of national
and international workshops in the 8 countries, 166 different needs and challenges regarding technology use were identified by sheep and goat farmers. Sixty potential solutions were collated by the project partners, with some solutions addressing more than one need and production type (meat sheep, dairy sheep and dairy goats). In total, 18 needs were not addressed as follows: 3 for reproduction, 4 for health/welfare, 3 for herd monitoring, 2 for feeding/grazing, 4 for milking, and 2 for fattening. During a final international workshop, additional solutions were identified by over 80 stakeholders to address those gaps although not all were available on the market or directly adapted. Only two gaps relating to milking were not addressed. Between existing technologies and upcoming prototypes, most sheep and goats farmers’ needs for technology use on farms can be answered. However, barriers to uptake and cost-benefit analysis, amongst others, should also be considered