Engaging dairy farming stakeholders in developing the Mooving Cows digital tool for practicing appropriate cow handling

Appropriate handling of dairy cows improves animal welfare and milk production and reduces the risk of injury to cows and people. However, safely interacting with cows requires training to understand their natural behavior. Our objective was to develop, in collaboration with Wisconsin dairy farming stakeholders, an innovative tool for dairy farm staff to practice appropriate cow handling. We created and evaluated a prototype of Mooving Cows, a digital touchscreen game in which players practice moving cows in simulated dairy farm environments. The learning objectives were to understand how human actions affect safety and cow behavior, stress, and productivity. We conducted focus groups with dairy farm staff (3 groups in Spanish, n = 16; 2 groups in English, n = 4) and 3 English focus groups with decision-makers (n = 10) such as farm owners and managers, bilingual consultants, and veterinarians. First, the focus group participants completed questionnaires about their experiences with and perceptions of cow handling and professional training and then they played the game prototype individually. On average, participants indicated they felt fairly comfortable using mobile applications (scale: 1 = very comfortable, 5 = very uncomfortable; farm staff: 1.9 ± 1.2, mean ± SD, range = 1 to 5; decision-makers: 1.8 ± 1.0, range = 1 to 4). After playing the game prototype, participants engaged in recorded, facilitated discussions about their qualitative impressions of the game. The research team reviewed the transcriptions to identify action items for improving the final version of the game, then conducted an inductive codebook thematic analysis to summarize themes relating to the participants' impressions of the game. We incorporated participants' feedback into version 1.0 of the game and compiled their ideas for future versions of the game. Overall, participants indicated the game was entertaining and would be useful for job training, particularly for new hires with little cow-handling experience. The results from the qualitative evaluation of the game prototype by dairy farming stakeholders suggest that the game could be a relevant way for farm staff, especially new hires, to remain current with national standards and expectations for continuing education.