Gigacow

The digitization of agriculture makes it possible to collect more and more data from our dairy farms using automated methods. Together with genomic breeding evaluation and new connected sensors, this means great opportunities for increased production on Swedish dairy farms even in a changing climate.

  • An infrastructure investment aimed at increasing the exchange between researchers and industry in an environment where both technology and climate are changing ever faster.
  • The network currently consists of 15 farms with over 5000 dairy cows where we are currently installing the monitoring system.
About SLU Gigacow

Gigacow is an infrastructure initiative from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences to increase the exchange between researchers and the industry. The goal is to work with farmers to combine genomic breeding evaluation with better metrics for production optimization in an environment where both technology and climate are changing faster and faster.

Gigacow has started work on creating a data collection platform that can be connected to available systems on dairy farms and also used as a base for connecting new sensors and cameras. The network currently consists of 15 farms with over 5000 dairy cows where we are currently installing the monitoring system.

Unfortunately, we do not have the possibility to include more farms at the moment.

The aim is to DNA test the animals in the network and then complete the knowledge of the herds through automated collection of phenotypic breeding values and environmental data. Gigacow is responsible for the initial set-up and will also ensure that both the data collected and the conclusions are made available to participants in the project.

Please get in touch with us

  • if you would like to follow the project via its newsletter or have other questions
  • if you are interested in using data collected by Gigacow
  • if you are planning a research application where Gigacow can contribute as a research infrastructure.

In the long run, we are planning a meeting or a webinar where we can tell you more, answer questions and listen to wishes and concerns. What kind of data collection and research is of interest and value to farmers? What questions would you like to see more research on? What data is of interest to you as a researcher?

Please contact Tomas Klingström if you are interested in participating in the network or have other questions.

Newsletter Dec 2019.pdf

Newsletter July 2020.pdf

Newsletter December 2020.pdf

Newsletter July 2021.pdf


SLU Gigacow now collaborates in several different project constellations and therefore no longer has its own newsletter but can refer to the following documents and websites:

Summary of SLU Gigacow's work.pdf

Stable trials within SLU Gigacow (website)

Knowledge hub for the digitization of agriculture (External website)

SustAinimal

Information for farms in the network

Send an email to gigacow@slu.se if you want us to send information material to you personally.

Welcome to Gigacow!

This page contains information for Gigacow members. Please contact us for more information and planning.
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SLU Gigacow provides all the cow data researchers need

Production-related data from cows can be compiled and interpreted using SLU's unique resource Gigacow. Read an interview with the coordinator of SLU Gigacow: Tomas Klingström.
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Stable trials within Gigacow

Stable experiments are used to test new findings and hypotheses under conditions that are as close as possible to practice.
Find out more