From April 27th to 29th, we had the pleasure to co-organize (with the project D4Dairy) the Dair'Innov congress which was held in Namur, Belgium. More than 100 people attended to hear about the latest research related to innovations for the improvement of dairy cow welfare and dairy farming sustainability. Nine sessions were held, with at least one invited speaker per session and open contributions. On the first day, topics included the impact of housing and the use of data and technology to improve cow health. Genomics, novel traits and proxies were presented on the second day. And a session on economic and social impact was covered on the last day.
This congress was the opportunity for some of HappyMoo's partners to present their last works. Clément Grelet (CRA-W), Manon Jattiot (INNOVAL), Luc Manciaux (INNOVAL), Laura Dale (LKV-BW), Nicolas Gengler (ULiège Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech) or Marion Calmels (Seenovia) were some of the many speakers.
These three days were a success both in terms of the quality of the presentations and the nice social events organized. The success of the conference was also possible thanks to the different profiles of people present. Indeed, scientists, field workers and milk recording organizations were able to exchange and enrich their knowledge. Gathering research and on-field applications in one congress is new and was really appreciated by the participants.
After a long period of working by videoconference, this congress was very much awaited by all HappyMoo partners in order to get together and exchange in person.