Sector | Livestock farming Dairy farming

Dairy farmers, their customers, and their suppliers will find here the answer to “what can ILVO do for me?”. You’ll get a brief overview of relevant expertise, analyses, infrastructure, and the professional approach that characterizes ILVO. You can contact the Cattle Information Center for specific services and questions regarding collaboration.

Go to Cattle Information Center (NL)

What does ILVO do?

How does ILVO work?

ILVO aims to support all stakeholders in Flemish dairy farming, from the primary producer, the supplying and processing industry, the distribution chain, to government authorities and consumers, with the above broad palette of expertise and a modern research infrastructure. Contemporary challenges are handled by experienced professionals. Together with the other parties involved in the chain, they work on customized solutions.

Your point of contact: the Cattle Information Center (in Dutch)

The Cattle Information Center (Rundveeloket) is the ideal point of contact for all questions on dairy or beef farming. The answer is always objective, independent, and scientifically substantiated. The Cattle Information Center keeps you informed of the latest research results by participating in study days and information sessions, as well as through publications in the trade press, an up-to-date online knowledge center (in Dutch), a website, and a quarterly (free) newsletter (in Dutch).

Last, the Cattle Information Center is happy to listen to your concerns, to translate them into concrete research questions, and to bring the necessary partners to the table.

Your ILVO guarantee

  • Scientifically-based solutions
  • Individual and/or co-creative guidance for innovation trajectories
  • Confidential treatment of your question
  • Clear and easy-to-interpret results that are applicable to day-to-day operations
  • Technological support for various farm processes
  • Specialised analyses in the Animal Marine Laboratory (ANIMALAB)

Specialized research infrastructure

  • Modern experimental dairy barn (built in 2014) with space for 140 lactating cows, calves and heifers.
  • 74 RIC feeders for registration of individual feed uptake.
  • 6 rooms to measure gas exchange and 2 Greenfeed devices to study (greenhouse) gas emissions (methane, nitrous oxide, CO2, and ammonia).
  • Mobile Greenfeeds for emissions research at pasture.
  • Devices in the barn to measure ammonia emissions under natural ventilation.
  • Research barn to measure ammonia emissions under conditions with straw bedding.

All of the ILVO expertise at your service

ILVO works in an interdisciplinary fashion and has a network of living labs that work closely together. A problem or question is therefore examined from many different angles by ILVO experts from different disciplines. This is guaranteed by ILVO's broad and systematic approach, together with the typical openness of the ILVO culture.

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