The Danish Cattle Research Centre (DKC) at AU Viborg – Foulum Research Centre – is a high-tech research platform for dairy cattle, housing 260 Holstein dairy cows and young stock. The facility offers state-of-the-art facilities and infrastructure for research involving dairy cows, calves, and heifers.
The centre includes two loose housing barns with computer-controlled feeding stations for individual feed intake recording, a milking parlour with a 2x12 SAC side-by-side system, and an intensive barn with 20 individual pens for fistulated cows, as well as four climate chambers for methane emission measurements.
The barns for calves and young stock are equipped with deep litter pens and systems for individual feeding, along with a weighing station to monitor growth. In addition, the facility includes a flexible research barn that can be adapted for behavioural studies and alternative housing systems. DKC also manages around 70 hectares of adjacent grazing land, all of which can be irrigated and configured flexibly to suit different experimental designs.
Research activities include areas such as nutrition, health, behaviour, reproduction, and animal welfare, with particular emphasis on sustainable milk production, efficient use of energy and nutrients, and the development of solutions that improve both production economics and animal welfare.
Methane emissions are measured in climate chambers and using GreenFeed units, which analyse the cows’ exhaled air for greenhouse gas output. In connection with the grazing areas, mobile GreenFeed units and additional measuring equipment enable data collection in outdoor studies.
Methane emissions are measured both in climate chambers and GreenFeed units, which analyse the cows’ exhaled air to quantify greenhouse gas emissions. In connection with the grazing areas, mobile GreenFeed units and supplementary measuring equipment are used to enable data collection in outdoor, pasture-based studies. Additional research includes feed strategies, management systems, and technical solutions. The facility is also used for projects related to barn design, ventilation, and control systems aimed at improving production management in commercial cattle farming.
The research centre works closely with external partners and has access to advanced laboratory facilities for the analysis of samples such as feed, blood, urine, and tissue
For further information about the facilities and opportunities for research and development collaboration, please contact:
