STATE-OF-THE-ART tracking collars are being attached to cows as part of ground-breaking research at Writtle College.
An £820,000 Government grant has been awarded to the agricultural college in Lordship Road, Writtle, and its partner, Essex University, for the project, which they claim could save the UK dairy industry millions of pounds.
Next month, the first herd of Essex dairy cows will have the small tracking devices placed round their necks.
Data collected from the devices – which are no bigger than the smallest mobile phone – will be analysed to spot the differences in behaviour of healthy and unhealthy cows, so diseases can be detected early.
The idea for the project came from Dr Jonathan Amory, principal lecturer in Animal Behaviour and Welfare at Writtle.
He said: "We need new indicators of welfare for our animals and technology is moving on fast and what we could not do five to ten years ago, we can now.
"Traditionally, a farmer would monitor the health of his cows personally, but that is impossible with the larger commercial herds of today.
"These devices are small and communicate with each other every few seconds. They send signals to collecting devices which send back vast quantities of data which we use to monitor changes in the individual cow's behaviour and the social interaction of the herd as a whole.
"From this, we aim to produce equations for the onset of disease and other welfare issues."
The aim is to reduce sickness in cows, which costs the UK dairy industry £100 million a year.
The grant is the largest in the latest round to be awarded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
Dr Amory added: "We are the only institution of this size to receive such a large grant.
"It has enabled us to pay for two post-doctoral students to work on the 39-month project."
Dr Amory is working with a colleague at Essex University, biological mathematician Dr Edd Codling, who will analyse the data. Scientists from Exeter University and The Royal Veterinary College are also involved.
In the third year, Devon herds will be used to take into account regional differences.
