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The Dairy Farmer, The Perception That The Public Has Affected Their Overall Wellbeing As A Company Essay

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Introduction For the modern dairy farmer, the perception that the public has regarding the industry has a significant impact on their overall wellbeing as a company. However, most people in modern society have little personal experience with farming, and their opinions are often based on second-hand information (Boogaard et al. 2010). In general people are more concerned with the welfare of the animals and want them to be able to display natural behaviours like grazing on pasture for most of the day (Cardoso et al. 2016). This however, can prove very problematic for dairy producers as it results in lower control over feed intake and body condition score of the cows. Body Condition Score (BCS) is a management tool used to assess body fat stores in dairy cows (Ferguson et al. 1994). It has been correlated with overall reproduction, health and productivity of dairy cows at it is considered one of the most practical methods of assessing changes in energy stores (Berry et al. 2007; Bewley et al. 2008). However, due to its subjectivity and time consumption it is not a widely used management tool in the industry. There are many studies that try to use technology as a way of making an automatic system for BCS. This paper aims to identify the perspectives on the BCS from the public and the producer, benefits of using an automated BCS and current technologies available. Public Perception of the Industry The last five decades have proven a significant change to the agriculture

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