Video Game Designed to Improve Dairy Cow Handling Skills
A University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension specialist in animal welfare has designed a video game to help dairy farm personnel improve their animal handling skills, reports Wisconsin Agriculturist. Participants who complete the eight levels of the “Mooving Cows” educational game receive a certificate of completion. Handling that puts too much stress on the animals will cause the participant to repeat a level to learn from their mistakes. The game is available in both Spanish and English. “Farmers were asking me for better resources to train their staff members, and I got the idea that maybe we need something more hands-on, more interactive, more engaging, than things like videos,” Jennifer Van Os says. “Literature has shown that serious games produce better learning and retention than other education methods, so I decided to give it a try.”