Nedap SmartSight Locomotion Monitoring and CowControl

Nedap Livestock Management is the dairy and pig technology business of Dutch technology company Nedap, active in livestock since 1977 and headquartered in Groenlo, the Netherlands, with offices in Shanghai and Burlington, USA. It helps farmers optimise the performance and wellbeing of individual cows while reducing workload, through CowControl monitoring, FarmControl barn automation and MilkingControl.

SmartSight Locomotion Monitoring, launched in June 2025, is the first of its AI vision solutions. A camera mounted on an exit race or drafting gate scans cows after every milking, and computer vision builds a locomotion profile for each animal. When movement changes, the system flags early lameness before it is visible to the eye and provides scores to guide treatment and recovery. Alerts appear in the Nedap app alongside the existing heat, health and location data of the CowControl platform. It is sold through distribution partners such as Alta Genetics, Genex and CensorTec.

• Exit-race camera: scans every cow as it leaves the milking parlour or passes a drafting gate.
• AI locomotion scoring: computer vision builds a movement profile per cow and scores lameness.
• Early alerts: flags changes in movement through the Nedap app or a laptop.
• CowControl integration: combines locomotion with heat, health and location monitoring.
• Treatment follow-up: scores guide treatment and track recovery over time.
• Partner network: installation and support through regional dealers and distributors.

• Large dairy farms adding automated lameness detection to existing cow monitoring collars.
• Dairy groups standardising welfare indicators across several farms for sustainability reporting.
• Veterinary and hoof-care service providers prioritising visits with locomotion scores.

• Detects lameness before it is visible; the company cites that early intervention shortens cases by an average of 40 days.
• Reduces involuntary culling and milk losses, since lameness can cut milk production by 10-30% according to the company.
• Company-reported average saving of about 45 USD per cow per year.
• Adds vision insights to an existing cow monitoring platform rather than a separate system.

Lameness is one of the top reasons for involuntary culling of dairy cows worldwide, and large dairies are turning to camera-based AI to monitor every cow at every milking without extra labour. In Vietnam, dairy production is concentrated in large modern farms with milking parlours, where continuous welfare monitoring supports productivity and sustainability goals.

Nedap Livestock Management states it has worked in livestock since 1977, with headquarters at Parallelweg 2, Groenlo, the Netherlands, and offices Nedap China Ltd. in Shanghai and Nedap Inc. in the USA. Its website is available in six languages. SmartSight was developed over several years on commercial farms, with Irish partner CensorTec.