More than 100 participants attended the Dair'Innov Congress in Namur, Belgium, from 26 to 29 April and took advantage of this great opportunity to present their latest research results and to get in touch with international teams.

Two international projects as organisers: The congress was organised by D4Dairy together with the HappyMoo project. The Interreg project Happy Moo aims to monitor animal welfare based on three selected criteria: health status, stress and absence of hunger by means of spectral analysis of milk. The transdisciplinary, cross-sector COMET project D4Dairy aims to further develop digitally supported management for dairy farms that contributes to a further improvement in animal health, animal welfare and product quality through data-based, networked information systems.

9 sessions around innovations to improve animal health in the dairy cattle sector: These topics were also reflected in the 9 sessions, such as impact of housing, advanced use of technology, data for healthier cows, transfer to farms, genomics generating new opportunities, novel traits and proxies, sensor technology linked to animal welfare, health and environmental impact, economic and social impact and other innovations. In all sessions, after an introductory keynote presentation with an overview of the current state of knowledge, current and future innovations aimed at improving cow welfare and the sustainability of dairy farming were presented. The congress thus built a bridge between innovative research and practical applications.

Exchange with international experts: For many participants it was the first congress after a long Corona break and the opportunity for discussion after the lectures was appreciated all the more. Many participants also took advantage of the opportunity for further exchange during the social programme. The beautiful city of Namur showed itself from its best side with sunny weather and thus rounded off a very successful and very well organized congress.

Further information and photos of the Dair`Innov Congress: https://www.dairinnov.eu/