£3m project to examine digital innovation in livestock sector

A new multinational project will highlight how digital technologies – and other innovative ways to collect livestock and environmental data – could be better tailored to the needs of livestock managers and wider communities in moorland areas. 

Known as rangeland outwith the UK and Ireland, moorland covers over a third of the globe and provides the forage resource for a range of extensively managed grazing systems, where the livestock convert the vegetation into meat and dairy products suitable for human consumption. 

SRUC is the UK partner in a £3 million EU-funded project called DIGI-Rangeland (Digital innovation and data technology network for rangeland livestock farming systems), which is led by the French Livestock Institute with partners from organisations, in addition to the UK, in Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Greece, Iceland, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Romania.  

Dr Claire Morgan-Davies from SRUC's Hill & Mountain Research Centre near Loch Lomond said: “Not only is the majority of rangeland vegetation considered to be of high nature conservation value – because of the vegetation itself and the wildlife it supports – but also the health of that vegetation is intimately linked to, and so depends upon, the continuation of the grazing systems. 

“However, these grazing systems face numerous challenges that threaten their economic and social viability. This project is designed to allow the different partners – and especially the network of land managers that will be created in each country over the four years of the project – to learn from each other and see what approaches might be relevant to rangeland systems in more than just one country.” 

Dr Morgan-Davies’s team will be involved in setting up a network of upland farmers and wider land users in the UK.  

The Hill & Mountain Research Centre will also act as an Upland Digital Hub, organising events for farmers, advisors, students and other upland land-users to see how those solutions can operate in practice.  

Dr Morgan-Davies added: “We are excited to be involved in this project, which complements the increasing focus of research at the farms in recent years in highlighting that the use of digital technology will be essential in ensuring the continued viability of upland farming systems.”  

The project will also involve SRUC’s Rural Policy Centre, working with wider rural communities in upland areas. 

To find out more, visit www.digirangeland.eu