A video game might be the answer to help train farm workers how to better handle dairy cattle.
The Division of Extension is soon releasing a smartphone app that is essentially a cow handling simulator. You play it like a game, but it’s meant to help train farm employees to reduce stress in animals and increase milk production, says UW-Madison Professor Jennifer Van Os. Van Os, an Extension specialist in animal welfare, is leading the project. She says dairy farmers have been asking for this type of training tool.
“They asked if I could come to their farm and train their employees on cow handling practices,” she says.
Van Os says this surprised her because there are a lot of free resources available on livestock handling. However, taking in information via reading or watching is called passive learning, she says. And that is not the most engaging way to learn.
“My idea was to do something more interactive that could interest people and help them practice these techniques,” she says.
So, she developed an educational video game, Mooving Cows. While this game may feature cute, cartoon cows, it challenges herdsmen and women with real-life situations. This includes moving cows in and out of a parlor and around a free stall barn.
“We’re starting with basic cow handling principles,” Van Os says, such as learning about the flight zone and point of balance. “But instead of just describing these in words, people can see the concepts and experience them in this simulated environment.”
The game does not replace the real-life experience of handling livestock, but it offers a lesson in a low-cost, low-risk environment to supplement other training methods. The game is bilingual, offered in both English and Spanish, to meet the needs of the dairy workforce.
Van Os expects it to go public in the app store by early 2024. From there, the opportunities are endless on how they can apply the app to different types of livestock or different languages.