Wisconsin Life

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Hi.

Angela

Jennifer Van Os is at home in a Wisconsin dairy barn. Being here is really a dream come true. It's not where she expected her scientific research career would take her. But it's almost a dream I didn't realize I had. I never thought that this would be possible. So, a decade ago, I hadn't even heard of animal welfare science. I started working with cows. And I realized how fascinating they really are. They're very inquisitive. They're fun to work with, and I love working with them. Jennifer's specialty at the University of Wisconsin is animal welfare. So if you break down the word wel/fare, we're really asking, "How 'well' is she 'faring'?" Animal welfare is a growing academic field, as consumers demand more information about where their food comes from and how it's handled. So, that's something people often ask. If they've seen certain marketing campaigns, they ask how do you know if a cow is happy? Is that even "a thing?" And that's part of my job, is to try to assess how a cow is feeling. So, what is her affective status? Is she feeling positive emotions or negative emotions? But really, it is a scientific discipline and we try to be quite rigorous. That rigorous scientific discipline has Jennifer in the barn taking precise measurements of airflow. We thought that air speeds might be too low and so what you'll notice is towards the edges of the barn, we see high-speed air at the cow height, whereas, in the middle, it drops off. Airflow is crucial because controlling a cow's temperature is one key to comfort. The idyllic image of a cow out in pasture on a sunny day, isn't always what the cow wants.

Jordan Matthews

We give a lot of tours at our dairy in the summertime. We'll be standing outside of our barn. We get a question a lot of the times if people ask, "Why aren't your cows on a pasture?" The ones at the far end are a little bit older. So we'll have visitors in T-shirts and shorts and we're about ready to go into our cross-ventilated facility, and we'll say, "Now, just imagine if you had a black leather coat on." There has been research looking at, do cows prefer to be inside a barn or outside? And the answer is 'both.'

Angela

At the University of Wisconsin Dairy Research Farm, the herd has free access to the pasture. It's part of animal welfare to give livestock freedom of choice. Like being able to scratch an itch, when needed, on a rotating brush. Jennifer's job is to research these ideas and spread the word about what works to improve welfare.

Jennifer Van Os

I serve the State of Wisconsin. I'm here to bring objective scientific evidence. She's one of the best hires in last 20 years at UW-Madison. She brings a fresh perspective and has a real good way with people. Yeah. Remember, I was here on Tuesday, yeah. The value of taking care of your animals and making sure that they're productive and profitable.

Angela

Jennifer likes the human connection and knowing her scientific research has practical applications. I get to work with producers, see cows on a regular basis, and I find that really rewarding to know that our research really is going to be applied in the industry to help these animals. What I really found reflected in working with our local industry is the embodiment of the Wisconsin Idea. Jennifer's career with the university is just getting started.

farmers conversing

Angela

We're not freezing the calves, whereas down in Texas... But she is already doing her part to train the next generation. Went down the line and made sure all of them are at the same height and are the same distance away. Jennifer's graduate students are researching best practices for raising calves and learning how to communicate their findings. Because I feel like there's always this gap, kind of, between science and just the general population. Even going home and explaining my research to my family is really, like, it's easier now, 'cause I see Jennifer do it on a daily basis with her work. She can bring high-level complex topics down to simple terms that everyone at our dairy can understand. We did beef up our ventilation system as a result of that project.

Jennifer

Though, I think it's really been a dream come true to form research collaborations and to see positive changes occur.

Angela

Ultimately, it's the cows who may benefit the most from Jennifer's work. I really wanna thank the cows that produce dairy products and make sure that their lives are as good as possible, because I'm really thankful for what they do to enrich our lives.

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