AI for better milk and more animal welfare

Weingarten - Ravensburg-Weingarten University of Applied Sciences (RWU) is a partner in a research project designed to support farmers. Dairy farms in Baden-Württemberg have been collecting extensive data for years, including on milk yield, animal health and barn climate. This data is now to be put to good use.

RWU supports Rinderunion with expertise in artificial intelligence

This is why the Baden-Württemberg Cattle Union launched the "Mil-KI" project at the beginning of 2025. They want to develop systems that enable farmers to make better decisions and thus promote animal welfare and sustainability in dairy farming.

RWU is also part of the project alongside other partners. The university is contributing its expertise in the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Two employees from the Institute for Artificial Intelligence (IKI) are evaluating data, identifying use cases for AI in dairy farming and developing suitable algorithms.

"We want to support farmers"

"We want to support farmers," says Professor Dr. Markus Schneider, Head of the IKI. Dairy AI should have a benefit for everyone, with animal welfare in particular taking center stage. "We take a look: What wishes of farmers can we implement with AI?"

The research project is being funded with more than 800,000 euros by the state of Baden-Württemberg and the European Union. It will run until the beginning of 2028 and the aim is to ultimately make the AI tools easily accessible to farmers in the LKV Herd Manager. This is software that farms can use to manage their herds.

In addition to the RWU and the Rinderunion, the Förderverein Bioökonomieforschung, the Landeskontrollverband Baden-Württemberg, the University of Hohenheim, the Landwirtschaftliches Zentrum Baden-Württemberg, the Landesamt für Geoinformation und Landentwicklung and several farms are also involved in Mil-KI.

Text: Caroline Kolb