EU-PLF e-course: a free on-line e-course to understand concepts of precision livestock farming
Résumé
Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) technologies in farms offer a lot of new opportunities to improve animal
welfare, health and efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of animal production. Continuous
monitoring of animals throughout the use of cameras, microphones and sensors, generates data that need
to be analysed to transform data into valuable information, helping farmers to take a better care of their
animals. The EU-PLF e-course has been created to disseminate the main outputs of the FP7 Smart Farming
for Europe project (EU-PLF) which aims to bring PLF tools from the lab to end-users in dairy, pig and
poultry farms in order to create value for the farmers and other stakeholders. The animal science team in
AGROCAMPUS OUEST used results created by the EU-PLF project and contents of the advanced course
provided by CIHEAM to design educational on-line resources. Three learning pathways were defined (animal
science students, suppliers of PLF technologies, professionals in animal production) to answer the specific
need of the various categories of stakeholders. The e-course contains basic knowledge, including examples
and methods required to analyse a study case. Seven units were generated for an equivalent of a two-day long training (16 h) but learners may spend more time depending on their needs. Dynamic schemes, self-assessment and videos of farmers, scientists and professionals make the course user-friendly. The course will be available at the following address: http://plf.agrocampus-ouest.fr. Its free accessibility will allow a wide appropriation by individual learners but it can also be used as a teaching tool for educational and professional trainers. Quick changes and innovations in PLF technologies will require a regular update of the e-course content via continuous interaction with end-users, scientists, teachers, informatics engineers and PLF providers.