Dairy cattle housing modernization initiative

Lead Applicant: Derek Haley

Research Priority: Animal Health & Welfare

Program Type: Knowledge Translation and Transfer – Mobilization

Funding Cycle: 2025

Research Centre: NA

Research Summary: This project leverages a burgeoning cross-industry advisory group, supporting Ontario dairy producers with modernizing their facilities. This collaboration includes expertise from animal health and welfare specialists, financial lenders, builders, equipment providers, government, Dairy Farmers of Ontario, and others. Through workshops that prioritise peer-to-peer learning, our initiative is focused on the needs of producers and the questions they want answered. This project will produce a perennial resource manual for farmers seeking to renovate existing facilities or build new ones. It will leverage existing knowledge generated from recent Alliance-funded research on dairy cattle welfare, housing and comfort, making it relevant and accessible to a new audience of end-users. This project will also support strong rural communities and ensure more dairy producers have the knowledge to make informed decisions regarding large capital investments. The initiative will support the dairy industry’s goals of efficiently and sustainably producing high-quality milk.