SLU Gigacow provides all data about cows

Page reviewed:  25/06/2025

Production-related data from cows can be compiled and interpreted using SLU's unique resource Gigacow.

All major research projects start by collecting data. If we have good data available from the start, we can plan better and projects can be completed earlier, says Tomas Klingström, coordinator of Gigacow.

Now, researchers are using Gigacow to find out what is a good temperament for a dairy cow. Should we breed them to be calmer, more active or teachable?

Another project will investigate heat stress in cows, a problem that is likely to increase with climate change.

After five years of data collection and fine-tuning, Gigacow has reached a point where it is supporting more and more projects.

Tomas Klingström is a civil engineer by training and has been involved in SLU Gigacow from the start. His career started with biobanks before it became Big Data on cows. He is on loan part-time as an expert for Växa and Agronod AB.

Photo of a man sitting inside a stable building with cows.
Tomas Klingström, coordinator for Gigacow.

When he describes the infrastructure, it goes like this:

In one way it is huge and probably the largest of its kind, in another way it is very small. Ingemar Ohlsson and I only work part-time and then we have a project at SLU IT. The reason why it works so well is the good agreements, partly with Växa, partly with Nordic Breeding Evaluation and that Sweden's farmers are so positive and easy to work with, says Tomas Klingström.

Part of Gigacow's goal is to keep track of technological developments in Sweden. But also to offer farmers insights and conclusions from the database.

The data is collected via the farm's operational management system and Växa Kokontrollen, but will be supplemented with more and more systems such as indoor climate measurements.

Thanks to Gigacow, parameters such as feed, crop management and climate can be linked to the cows in a herd. This offers great opportunities for researchers.

Tell us more about the project to study temperament in dairy cows!

A good temperament can be different things, depending on how the cow is kept. If it's a farm with a milking pit, milking robots, etc.

Tomas Klingström also says that farmers tend to be more forgiving of the cow if she milks well, which is a problem with current temperament evaluation as it means that traits correlate in a way they should not.

So far, temperament evaluation of cows has been done in conjunction with conformation evaluation. The animal owner fills in a questionnaire on temperament.

Another project will look at how heat stress affects cows.

46 percent of the research applications that have used SLU Gigacow as support have been approved for funding. An unusually high number, in other words.

The data needs to benefit enough projects to justify this kind of infrastructure investment and it is promising that projects using Gigacow are so often granted.

Funding for Gigacow ends at the New Year. How do you feel about that?

I'm okay with that. That's the world of science. Now it's time to apply for new funding. We have achieved the goals, kept to the budget, started contributing to projects and both agriculture and the industry appreciate what we do. The project has been extended and is approaching five years. I am doing the things I dreamed of at the beginning of my career.

What is Gigacow?

Gigacow is SLU's initiative for large-scale data collection from dairy farms, a university-wide resource that can also be used by external researchers.

Dairy farms have access to a wealth of data from milking systems and cow control. Data is also collected on feed consumption, housing environment and cow genetics. Gigacow processes the data and makes comparisons possible between farms.

Two goals with Gigacow:

In the short term, the infrastructure will contribute to increased profitability and sustainability for Swedish dairy farmers.

In the 15-year term, Gigacow will contribute to basic genetic research not only in cows but, with the help of quantitative genetics, study polygenic traits and how we can better understand complex traits in both animals and humans.

Thanks to the herd size of cows and the work on genomic breeding evaluation, cows provide unique opportunities for researchers to study these and how recombination affects heredity.

How many cows?

Gigacow monitors as many cows as the large EU project SmartCow. That means over 5,000 dairy cows. Gigacow cooperates with 15 farms.

To the Gigacow homepage

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