Selected Podcast
Feeding the Future: Dairy Cattle Health and Welfare
Today's dairy industry has undergone profound changes in recent decades, with these changes often affecting the health and welfare of dairy cows. Ricardo Chebel D.V.M.discusses how thought leaders at The University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine are making use of artificial intelligence and other technology to help dairy farmers better meet these challenges and ensure the safety and welfare of their herds.
Featuring:
• Dr. Chebel is the faculty coordinator for UF’s dairy veterinary extension program. The objective of the veterinary extension program for dairy cattle is to provide educational leadership and assistance to the Florida Dairy Industry in matters related to health and health management of dairy cattle. The target audience includes Florida dairy farmers, managers, employees, agri-business, practicing veterinarians, hoof trimmers and all other allied industry affiliates.
Specific areas of emphasis include: development of programs for dairy farmers such as reproductive management, implementation of reproductive programs and evaluation of reproductive efficiency, development of training programs for dairy employees such as transition cow management, calving management and newborn care, identifying and treating sick animals, calf raising, hoof trimming and milk quality, and the continued improvement of animal well-being in livestock production.
• Here is a video that we put together a few years ago that gives you an idea of some of the things our dairy group has been involved with: https://youtu.be/YfQ473KdeEY
Ricardo Chebel, D.V.M.
Florida is home to about 116,000 dairy cows, and their well-being is a top concern for Dr. Ricardo Chebel, a professor with the UF College of Veterinary Medicine. In 2016, he co-founded the nationwide non-profit Dairy Cattle Welfare Council with a colleague from The Ohio State University. The council includes scientists, veterinarians, industry figures and dairy producers among its members and promotes animal welfare.• Dr. Chebel is the faculty coordinator for UF’s dairy veterinary extension program. The objective of the veterinary extension program for dairy cattle is to provide educational leadership and assistance to the Florida Dairy Industry in matters related to health and health management of dairy cattle. The target audience includes Florida dairy farmers, managers, employees, agri-business, practicing veterinarians, hoof trimmers and all other allied industry affiliates.
Specific areas of emphasis include: development of programs for dairy farmers such as reproductive management, implementation of reproductive programs and evaluation of reproductive efficiency, development of training programs for dairy employees such as transition cow management, calving management and newborn care, identifying and treating sick animals, calf raising, hoof trimming and milk quality, and the continued improvement of animal well-being in livestock production.
• Here is a video that we put together a few years ago that gives you an idea of some of the things our dairy group has been involved with: https://youtu.be/YfQ473KdeEY
Transcription:
Melanie: Today's dairy industry has changed enormously in recent decades, with these changes often affecting the health and welfare of dairy cows. Today, we're learning how thought leaders at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine are making use of new approaches to help producers stay abreast of best practices to more effectively manage their farms and herds, feeding the future dairy cattle health and welfare.
Welcome to UF Vet Med Voice with the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine. I'm Melanie Cole. And joining me today is Dr. Ricardo Chebel. He's a Weeks' Professor of Bovine Medicine at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Chebel, I'm so glad to have you join us today. Can you start by telling us a little bit about your work as a professor of bovine medicine and how you co-founded the Nationwide Nonprofit Dairy Cattle Welfare Council with a colleague from Ohio State University?
Dr. Ricardo Chebel: Well, Melanie, thank you very much for having me. I appreciate the opportunity to discuss what we have been doing here at the University of Florida. To begin with, a lot of the work that we have been doing here at the University of Florida has been taking advantage of the massive amount of data that is produced everyday on dairy farms.
As you can imagine with the bigger farms, the small details make a big difference. And many times, these details can only be captured with very careful collection and analysis of data. University of Florida is one of the primary institutions that is investing a significant amount of effort and funds to create this artificial intelligence initiative.
The faculty here at the University of Florida that work with livestock have been taking advantage of this initiative by the University of Florida on artificial intelligence. And the research that we have been doing is trying to organize and analyze this massive amount of data to help predict the success of animals. And also importantly for the welfare of the animal is to predict the likelihood of diseases.
And with this information that we're generating, we are able to then determine new strategies and suggest new alternatives of management and nutrition and environment for cattle, according to their risk of specific diseases. As far as the Dairy Cattle Welfare Council, that was an initiative that we started back in 2015 with a primary focus of bringing together veterinarians, consultants, producers, and people in general that are interested in improving the welfare of dairy cattle.
A big part of what we try to do with the Dairy Cattle Welfare Counseling is also to educate the public in general about the common practices of dairy production. And we have been very successful in attracting people from different walks of life to the Dairy Cattle Welfare Council to debate about best strategies of welfare in dairy cattle.
Melanie: It's absolutely fascinating what you do for a living, Dr. Chebel. So can you tell us some of the things your team is currently doing to improve the welfare of dairy cows and calves, along with an exciting collaboration with the UF College of Computer Engineering, using AI to produce algorithms that can predict diseases? Can you tell us about some of these exciting things?
Dr. Ricardo Chebel: Of course. As far as welfare goes, there are several projects that have been going on for a while. But the most recent project that we did with welfare is focused on the welfare of calves. One of my students, Ana Beatriz Montevecchio, has investigated what are the best housing strategies for these baby calves in the first 60 days of life to reduce the negative effects of heat stress on these calves. And in her experiments, she actually was able to expose calves to very diverse environments and show that at least for young calves, the environment has an impact, particularly on behavior, and to a degree, welfare. But the impacts of heat stress are actually smaller than what we originally thought they were.
That means that we need to continue to explore new housing strategies for calves under heat stress conditios, like the ones we see in Florida to reduce the negative impacts on welfare. And we also have to explore better what heat stress is in dairy calves since a lot of the effects that we expected of heat stress on calves were not observed, particularly when we look at feed efficiency and growth.
As far as the AI initiatives that we have in collaboration with Dr. Alina Zare at the College of Engineering and Computer Sciences, we have created an algorithm that helps us predict pretty accurately which cows are likely to have a uterine disease after calving. So this uterine disease in particular is usually diagnosed as early as four days after calving. It's a disease that is debilitating that costs approximately $400 per case. But with this algorithm that we developed based on monitoring systems that monitor behavior of cattle, we can predict in the day of calving or the day after calving, whether or not the cow is at high risk or low risk for that disease.
And that's important because a lot of the efforts, the labor that is spent on farms is to monitor these cows after calving. And by having these algorithms that automatically indicate whether the cow is low or high risk of disease, we can facilitate the management by segregating the cows that need the most attention.
Another project that we have going on now that was actually funded through the University of Florida is a similar project, but with beef cattle, in which we are using these automated systems that monitor behavior 24 hours a day to help predict the likelihood of bovine respiratory disease. Bovine respiratory disease affects as many as 20% of the cattle in feedlots. And because of that, a lot of feedlots end up using antimicrobial in all the calves that arrive. And that puts a significant pressure on the system because of the increasing risk of development of bacteria that are resistant to antimicrobials.
So with this project, what we intend to do is to segregate the animals at arrival in feedlots that are at low, moderate and high risk of bovine respiratory disease. And by doing so, we expect to reduce the use of antimicrobials in almost 50% of these calves. So there are benefits both for the animal because we can more accurately find the ones that will likely have the disease and start treating them appropriately, but also benefits to the industry, to the beef cattle industry, by reducing costs, but also improving the public perception about this industry since we will be reducing the use of antimicrobials, which is always a concern both in human and veterinary medicine.
Melanie: Wow. Well, based on that, doctor, how have you offered producers this knowledge and tools to minimize the stress on their herds? Can you tell us how you and the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, Food Animal Medicine team implement these goals every day in your work with Florida dairy farmers?
Dr. Ricardo Chebel: Yes. So, we have a team of experts that actually provide veterinary services to a few key clients that are around us here in Gainesville, in North Florida. And these colleagues actually visit the herds once a week or even twice a week. And they are intrinsically part of the team that manages the herd and they provide both training of the personnel on the farm as well as monitoring of data of the farm to make sure that these new strategies are being implemented.
For farms that are not part of the clinical program, we have an extension program. We in association with Colleen Larson in Okeechobee and Isabella Toledo here in Gainesville and Michasia Dowdy at the University of Georgia, where we actually provide this extension program called the Southeast Dairy Stewardship Program. And basically, every three to four months, we have a meeting, what we call a roadshow, and we go from Okeechobee down south, we go to Gainesville and then all the way up to Quitman and Montezuma in Georgia, where we actually teach and train personnel from different farms about all these new technologies and research that we have been doing.
Melanie: Dr. Chebel, can you tell us about the development of some other programs for dairy farmers, such as reproductive management, implementation of reproductive programs and evaluation of reproductive efficiency? Tell us a little bit about these other programs.
Dr. Ricardo Chebel: Yeah. So another area of research by my lab and some of our colleagues here at the University of Florida College of Vet Med is to improve the reproductive performance of both heifers and adult cattle. And one of the areas that is extremely interesting and exciting is the use of AI to help determine what reproductive protocols certain cows and heifers need.
In general, there are a lot of herds that use exogenous hormones to synchronize the estrous of the cow so that they can be inseminated and then produce a pregnancy. But what we are trying to do using again automated systems and artificial intelligence is predict which cows truly needs the exogenous hormones and which cows do not. And the cows that do not need it, we are proposing and we have been successful to manage their reproduction without any hormones whatsoever. So that's another area that we have been pushing for and we have been successful at, which is to really tailor the reproductive management of these animals according to their needs, instead of just using blanket therapies of exogenous hormones that sometimes can be perceived poorly by the public, but also because finding cows and giving injections can be pretty time-consuming. So that also improves the management on a day-to-day basis.
Melanie: Wow. Thank you so much for all this great information. Can you tell us as we get ready to wrap up how thought leaders at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine are really making use of these new approaches that you're discussing to help producers stay abreast of best practices so they can more effectively manage their farms and herds? What would you like other providers to take away from this information and your research today?
Dr. Ricardo Chebel: Well, I believe that the most important thing for us that work in the livestock industry is to understand that producers are being "bombarded" every day with a lot of information with a lot of data. And part of our job has to be to interpret the data better, integrate data that are coming from different softwares and different systems and then produce something that is meaningful and something that is understandable by the producer and something that the producer can take action to solve problems that will come in the future that are being predicted by these algorithms that we're creating. I believe that the initiative of the University of Florida on artificial intelligence is paramount to help us producers here, stakeholders in the Southeast, to continue to strive for increased performance and improve welfare of their animals.
Melanie: Thank you so much, doctor, for joining us today. And to listen to more podcasts from the experts at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, you can always visit vetmed.ufl.edu. That concludes today's episode of UF Vet Med Voice brought to you by the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, advancing animal, human and environmental health. I'm Melanie Cole.
Melanie: Today's dairy industry has changed enormously in recent decades, with these changes often affecting the health and welfare of dairy cows. Today, we're learning how thought leaders at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine are making use of new approaches to help producers stay abreast of best practices to more effectively manage their farms and herds, feeding the future dairy cattle health and welfare.
Welcome to UF Vet Med Voice with the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine. I'm Melanie Cole. And joining me today is Dr. Ricardo Chebel. He's a Weeks' Professor of Bovine Medicine at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Chebel, I'm so glad to have you join us today. Can you start by telling us a little bit about your work as a professor of bovine medicine and how you co-founded the Nationwide Nonprofit Dairy Cattle Welfare Council with a colleague from Ohio State University?
Dr. Ricardo Chebel: Well, Melanie, thank you very much for having me. I appreciate the opportunity to discuss what we have been doing here at the University of Florida. To begin with, a lot of the work that we have been doing here at the University of Florida has been taking advantage of the massive amount of data that is produced everyday on dairy farms.
As you can imagine with the bigger farms, the small details make a big difference. And many times, these details can only be captured with very careful collection and analysis of data. University of Florida is one of the primary institutions that is investing a significant amount of effort and funds to create this artificial intelligence initiative.
The faculty here at the University of Florida that work with livestock have been taking advantage of this initiative by the University of Florida on artificial intelligence. And the research that we have been doing is trying to organize and analyze this massive amount of data to help predict the success of animals. And also importantly for the welfare of the animal is to predict the likelihood of diseases.
And with this information that we're generating, we are able to then determine new strategies and suggest new alternatives of management and nutrition and environment for cattle, according to their risk of specific diseases. As far as the Dairy Cattle Welfare Council, that was an initiative that we started back in 2015 with a primary focus of bringing together veterinarians, consultants, producers, and people in general that are interested in improving the welfare of dairy cattle.
A big part of what we try to do with the Dairy Cattle Welfare Counseling is also to educate the public in general about the common practices of dairy production. And we have been very successful in attracting people from different walks of life to the Dairy Cattle Welfare Council to debate about best strategies of welfare in dairy cattle.
Melanie: It's absolutely fascinating what you do for a living, Dr. Chebel. So can you tell us some of the things your team is currently doing to improve the welfare of dairy cows and calves, along with an exciting collaboration with the UF College of Computer Engineering, using AI to produce algorithms that can predict diseases? Can you tell us about some of these exciting things?
Dr. Ricardo Chebel: Of course. As far as welfare goes, there are several projects that have been going on for a while. But the most recent project that we did with welfare is focused on the welfare of calves. One of my students, Ana Beatriz Montevecchio, has investigated what are the best housing strategies for these baby calves in the first 60 days of life to reduce the negative effects of heat stress on these calves. And in her experiments, she actually was able to expose calves to very diverse environments and show that at least for young calves, the environment has an impact, particularly on behavior, and to a degree, welfare. But the impacts of heat stress are actually smaller than what we originally thought they were.
That means that we need to continue to explore new housing strategies for calves under heat stress conditios, like the ones we see in Florida to reduce the negative impacts on welfare. And we also have to explore better what heat stress is in dairy calves since a lot of the effects that we expected of heat stress on calves were not observed, particularly when we look at feed efficiency and growth.
As far as the AI initiatives that we have in collaboration with Dr. Alina Zare at the College of Engineering and Computer Sciences, we have created an algorithm that helps us predict pretty accurately which cows are likely to have a uterine disease after calving. So this uterine disease in particular is usually diagnosed as early as four days after calving. It's a disease that is debilitating that costs approximately $400 per case. But with this algorithm that we developed based on monitoring systems that monitor behavior of cattle, we can predict in the day of calving or the day after calving, whether or not the cow is at high risk or low risk for that disease.
And that's important because a lot of the efforts, the labor that is spent on farms is to monitor these cows after calving. And by having these algorithms that automatically indicate whether the cow is low or high risk of disease, we can facilitate the management by segregating the cows that need the most attention.
Another project that we have going on now that was actually funded through the University of Florida is a similar project, but with beef cattle, in which we are using these automated systems that monitor behavior 24 hours a day to help predict the likelihood of bovine respiratory disease. Bovine respiratory disease affects as many as 20% of the cattle in feedlots. And because of that, a lot of feedlots end up using antimicrobial in all the calves that arrive. And that puts a significant pressure on the system because of the increasing risk of development of bacteria that are resistant to antimicrobials.
So with this project, what we intend to do is to segregate the animals at arrival in feedlots that are at low, moderate and high risk of bovine respiratory disease. And by doing so, we expect to reduce the use of antimicrobials in almost 50% of these calves. So there are benefits both for the animal because we can more accurately find the ones that will likely have the disease and start treating them appropriately, but also benefits to the industry, to the beef cattle industry, by reducing costs, but also improving the public perception about this industry since we will be reducing the use of antimicrobials, which is always a concern both in human and veterinary medicine.
Melanie: Wow. Well, based on that, doctor, how have you offered producers this knowledge and tools to minimize the stress on their herds? Can you tell us how you and the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, Food Animal Medicine team implement these goals every day in your work with Florida dairy farmers?
Dr. Ricardo Chebel: Yes. So, we have a team of experts that actually provide veterinary services to a few key clients that are around us here in Gainesville, in North Florida. And these colleagues actually visit the herds once a week or even twice a week. And they are intrinsically part of the team that manages the herd and they provide both training of the personnel on the farm as well as monitoring of data of the farm to make sure that these new strategies are being implemented.
For farms that are not part of the clinical program, we have an extension program. We in association with Colleen Larson in Okeechobee and Isabella Toledo here in Gainesville and Michasia Dowdy at the University of Georgia, where we actually provide this extension program called the Southeast Dairy Stewardship Program. And basically, every three to four months, we have a meeting, what we call a roadshow, and we go from Okeechobee down south, we go to Gainesville and then all the way up to Quitman and Montezuma in Georgia, where we actually teach and train personnel from different farms about all these new technologies and research that we have been doing.
Melanie: Dr. Chebel, can you tell us about the development of some other programs for dairy farmers, such as reproductive management, implementation of reproductive programs and evaluation of reproductive efficiency? Tell us a little bit about these other programs.
Dr. Ricardo Chebel: Yeah. So another area of research by my lab and some of our colleagues here at the University of Florida College of Vet Med is to improve the reproductive performance of both heifers and adult cattle. And one of the areas that is extremely interesting and exciting is the use of AI to help determine what reproductive protocols certain cows and heifers need.
In general, there are a lot of herds that use exogenous hormones to synchronize the estrous of the cow so that they can be inseminated and then produce a pregnancy. But what we are trying to do using again automated systems and artificial intelligence is predict which cows truly needs the exogenous hormones and which cows do not. And the cows that do not need it, we are proposing and we have been successful to manage their reproduction without any hormones whatsoever. So that's another area that we have been pushing for and we have been successful at, which is to really tailor the reproductive management of these animals according to their needs, instead of just using blanket therapies of exogenous hormones that sometimes can be perceived poorly by the public, but also because finding cows and giving injections can be pretty time-consuming. So that also improves the management on a day-to-day basis.
Melanie: Wow. Thank you so much for all this great information. Can you tell us as we get ready to wrap up how thought leaders at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine are really making use of these new approaches that you're discussing to help producers stay abreast of best practices so they can more effectively manage their farms and herds? What would you like other providers to take away from this information and your research today?
Dr. Ricardo Chebel: Well, I believe that the most important thing for us that work in the livestock industry is to understand that producers are being "bombarded" every day with a lot of information with a lot of data. And part of our job has to be to interpret the data better, integrate data that are coming from different softwares and different systems and then produce something that is meaningful and something that is understandable by the producer and something that the producer can take action to solve problems that will come in the future that are being predicted by these algorithms that we're creating. I believe that the initiative of the University of Florida on artificial intelligence is paramount to help us producers here, stakeholders in the Southeast, to continue to strive for increased performance and improve welfare of their animals.
Melanie: Thank you so much, doctor, for joining us today. And to listen to more podcasts from the experts at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, you can always visit vetmed.ufl.edu. That concludes today's episode of UF Vet Med Voice brought to you by the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, advancing animal, human and environmental health. I'm Melanie Cole.