Adapted breeds for productivity, quality, health and welfare in organic and low input dairy systems
WP leader: Werner Zollitsch, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, dep. of Sustainable Agricultural System, Austria. Email: werner.zollitsch@boku.ac.at
Objectives of Work Package 2
The overall objective of this work package is to improve the competitiveness of organic and low input conventional dairy production systems by improving the health and welfare, the productivity and product quality of livestock in low input conventional and organic systems.
This will be achieved:
- Assessing health and welfare criteria that can be used across diverse organic and low input conventional systems of production
- Understanding how contrasting genotypes adapt to organic low input conventional systems in physiological and energetic terms to enable improved productivity, product quality and health and welfare
- Identifying physiological biomarkers of adaptation to aid animal management and breeding decisions