Technical Report: Adapting Living Lab Behavioural Data Collection Systems for Commercial Dairy Farms
Authors: Shabnaz Mokhtarnazif and Tania Wolfe and Xu (Aimee) Xu and Marjorie Cellier and Pierre Levallois and Hayda Almeida and Marianne Villettaz Robichaud and Abdoulaye Banire Diallo and Elsa Vassseur
Date: 2026-08-01
Journal: SSRN
Status: Published
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.7350398
This technical report describes the adaptation of technology‑based behavioural data collection methods, originally developed in controlled Digital Living Lab (DLL) environments, for deployment on commercial tie-stall dairy farms in Quebec, Canada. The objective was to evaluate whether standardized in‑stall behavioural tests and dedicated information systems could be implemented under commercial farm conditions while maintaining data quality and minimizing disruption to routine farm operations. Two behavioural tests, the Novel Object Test and the Sudden Object Test, were adapted to account for farm‑level structural, logistical, and operational constraints. Data capture based on local network of high-resolution portable IP cameras was deployed to enable automated video recording with limited manual human intervention during testing. Behavioural data were successfully collected from 36 Holstein cows across three commercial farms over six on‑farm visit days (2 days per farm), generating over 10 hours of observational video footage. The main challenges were related to the placement, power supply, and connectivity of data capture devices in farm environments, as well as the coordination of data collection activities with routine farm operations. Overall, the results brought by this report show that behavioural measurement frameworks developed in a living lab environment can be effectively translated to commercial dairy settings through careful planning and methodological adaptation.